Fogel was sentenced to 14 years in prison in Russia, which the U.S. has condemned as a wrongful detention, after a small amount of medical cannabis was found in his luggage.

Fogel was arrested in 2021 while returning to Russia with his wife, Jane, and charged with smuggling marijuana he’d been prescribed in the U.S. for back pain.

American school teacher Marc Fogel has been released from a Russian prison after three and a half years in captivity, national security adviser Mike Waltz shared Tuesday. The 63-year-old, whom U.S. authorities had designated as wrongfully detained,