In August 2021, Marc Fogel landed in Sheremetyevo to begin his tenth-year teaching at the Anglo-American School of Moscow. He didn’t make it past customs. Security searched his bags to find 17 g of medical marijuana. Fogel suffers from chronic back pain and pot is the only thing that gives him relief. He was arrested, given a hasty trial, and sentenced to fourteen years in a Russian prison, an outrageous penalty. Marc still sits in a Russian prison today as a hostage, despite recent prison exchanges between the US and Russia. Why is Marc Fogel still in a Russian prison? Why hasn’t the US declared him “unlawfully detained” despite the similarity of his case to Brittney Griner’s? Or has Marc, a guy without celebrity or connections, just been forgotten? Ambassador Eric Rubin was recently in Pittsburgh to bring attention to Marc Fogel’s plight. The Eurasian Knot sat down with the Ambassador to talk about life as a diplomat and the Fogel case. Guest: Ambassador Eric Rubin has had numerous diplomatic appointments over his 30-year career in the US State Department. Most recently, he served as ambassador to Bulgaria from 2016 to 2019. Before that he was Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow from 2008-2011. He has recently devoted his time to free Marc Fogel, an American teacher who has been imprisoned for marijuana possession in Russia since 2021. Send us your sounds! euraknot.org/contact/ Patreon: www.patreon.com/euraknot Knotty News: eurasianknot.substack.com/ Website: euraknot.org/