There's a new bipartisan push to bring home an Oakmont man detained in Russia. Marc Fogel is currently serving a 14-year hard labor sentence for possession of medical marijuana.
Today, a bipartisan group of Congressmen and women from Pennsylvania sent a letter to Secretary of State Anthony Blinken asking his department to classify Fogel as wrongfully detained.
Conor Lamb, Guy Reschenthaler and Mike Doyle are among those who signed the letter. They were critical of the department's lack of urgency on the issue and asked leaders to make the case a higher priority.
Fogel has been stuck in Russia since August of 2021 when he and his wife had been traveling to the country for their 10th year of teaching there.
He was caught carrying around 17 grams of marijuana for medical purposes to treat his chronic back pain.
Its reported that Fogel has been teaching history in Colombia, Russia, Venezuela, Malaysia, and Oman to children of U.S. diplomats.
The family of Fogel also has a petition up on Change.org hoping to get as many signatures they can and former students and colleagues of Fogel are writing letters to Blinken as well.
