LOS ANGELES.–Released from Russian jail since his arrest in 2021, 66-year-old former school teacher Marc Fogel returned from Moscow accompanied by 67-year-old White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff. Witkoff worked with Russian officials on Fogel’s release, actually meeting for over three hours with 72-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin. What’s significant about Fogel’s release is the speed with which it happened because of Putin’s renewed relationship with 78-year-old President Donald Trump. In exchange for Fogel, the U.S. released crypto-hacker Alexander Vinnik, captured in Greece in 2017 and extradited to the United States. Vinnik agreed to forfeit $100 million to the U.S. government in exchange for his release, showing it was no sweetheart deal. U.S. officials said that another U.S. prisoner in Russia would be released sometime today without giving details.
Events that led to Fogel’s release show a whole new attitude in U.S.-Russian relations under Trump, a night-and-day reversal from the Cold War days of the Biden administration. Whether admitted to in Congress, Biden was the first and only U.S. president to go to war with the Kremlin, defying decades of diplomacy, détente and arms control, leaving the U.S. and Russia cooperative global partners, not mortal enemies under Biden. Biden tapped into Russian hysteria on Capitol Hill, using it to fund his Ukraine proxy war that had nothing to do with defending European democracy but only settling old scores harming U.S. national security. Biden’s abysmal approach to Russia ended decades of cooperative relations turning Russia into a mortal enemy. Since entering office Jan. 20, Trump has done everything possible to mend fences with Putin.
Trump wouldn’t tell the press how many times he’s spoken to Putin since back in office. But suffice it to say that Fogel was released, something that surprised many Democrats knowing the frosty relations with Moscow under Biden. Trump said in the campaign he would bring the Ukraine War to an end in 24 hours, a metaphor obviously for starting the necessary diplomacy to ending the war at the earliest possible time. Releasing Fogel signals that Witkoff’s meeting with Putin could not have gone better, knowing that Trump is fully onboard to settle the Ukraine conflict by meeting Putin simple requirements for ending the conflict. Putin told Ukraine’s 47-year-old President Volodymyr Zelensky in March 2022 that he would end the war if Ukraine recognized Russia sovereignty over Crimea and independence in Donetsk and Luhansk. Zelensky opted for war over a settlement.
High-ranking U.S. delegation led by Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Ukraine Special Envoy Keith Kellogg plans to meet with Zelensky at the Munich Security Conference this weekend. Vance, Rubio and Kellogg will listen to Zelensky’s concerns about security measures in any peace plan but will also be told that Trump will settle the conflict with Putin. Once Zelensky lost the war, he no longer had a say in how a peace settlement rolls out, including making any demands. U.S. paid for his bankrupt Kiev government and the war, giving Trump the right to make any peace settlement. Zelensky wants it his way, demanding only recently the European Union give him 200,000 peacekeeping troops for a security shield. Zelensky wanted NATO membership but knows that it’s not possible because Putin insists on Ukraine’s neutrality.
Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said prisoner releases were the result of “very, very meticulous negotiating work,” hinting there had been a change in attitude. “Of course, such agreements are hardly capable of becoming a breakthrough moment but at the same time, bit by bit, these are step to build mutual trust, which is now at its lowest point,” Peskov said. Only diehard Russian haters in Congress, once accusing Trump of Russian collusion, can’t fathom that U.S. foreign policy has changed toward Russia. National Security Adisor Mike Waltz said Fogel’s release shows “that serves as a show of good faith from the Russians and a sign we are moving in the right direction to end the brutal and terrible war in Ukraine,” showing what’s really behind the prisoner exchange. Trump has set the conditions for ending the Ukraine War, something once thought impossible.
Releasing Fogel was the first of many new signs in a warming of U.S.-Russian relations. No one in Congress understood the damage Biden did to U.S.-Russian relations. Trump has changed things overnight, capitalizing on his cooperative, pragmatic relationship with Putin, not Biden’s one of provocation and antagonism. “We were treated very nicely by Russia. Actually, I hope that’s the beginning of a relationship where we can end that [Ukraine] war and millions of people can stop being killed,” Trump said Feb. 11. Democrats and the corrupt U.S. press only want to highlight Trump’s alleged illegal activity and failures, not glaring successes. Voters who give Trump over 50% approval ratings like what they see from Trump over his first month in office. Only Democrats and the fake news continue the same kind of denigration used during the entire 2024 presidential campaign.
About of Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
