After nearly two years in a Russian prison, Oakmont teacher Marc Fogel said Thursday he is able to live with excruciating joint pain but pleaded for U.S. officials to bring him home, the hope of a miracle never far from his thoughts.

“I see doctors here. They’ve given me medicines. They haven’t let me rot,” Fogel said in an exclusive phone call with TribLive at his mother’s home in Butler County.

It was the first time that Fogel, 63, spoke with a reporter since his August 2021 arrest for possession of 17 grams of medical marijuana. He was convicted in June 2022 and sentenced to a penal colony for 14 years. Fogel remains one of several high-profile Americans detained in Russia, including journalist Evan Gershkovich, who has been held since March 2023 on espionage charges.

During the 10-minute conversation, Fogel was careful in his comments. He did not criticize Russian authorities or decry the conditions of his prison.

He did, however, speak about his health.

“Spinal injuries are profound injuries. There’s nerve damage and numbness, and my balance is not as good as it should be,” he said.

The medical marijuana Fogel possessed when arrested was prescribed legally in Pennsylvania for back and knee pain. Fogel’s family supplied the Trib with X-rays of his back taken at the European Medical Center in Moscow in 2013. The images show the surgical pins and screws in his spine.

He turned to medical marijuana, he said, as an alternative to the harsher risks of opioids. He does not have that relief now. He copes with his pain in other ways, like stretching and walking and leaning on his faith. There is a church he visits daily at the penal colony.

“It’s very small but beautiful. On this wall, there’s a number of icons. … I go through this daily routine of thanking for little things that I’m alive,” he said. “I have a great family, and I try to be thankful.

“Then I hope and I say please give me strength and faith and patience, and please look over my mom and please have mercy on my family.”

Malphine Fogel, 95, was not expecting a call from her son Thursday afternoon. She had not heard from him in two weeks. The calls are not scheduled. She was meeting with a Trib reporter when the phone rang.

“Oh, it’s Marc! I have to take this,” she said, looking at the caller ID.

On the other end of the landline, a U.S. Embassy official told her that he had a call from Marc Fogel in a Russian prison. Would she accept?

Yes, of course she would.

“Buongiorno!”

Marc Fogel does not speak Italian, but his mother says he tries to pepper the language into his phone calls. For Malphine Fogel, a petite Italian woman, speaking to her son makes her simultaneously happy and emotional.

Marc Fogel has been an international teacher since college. He went from student teaching in London to teaching students around the world. Venezuela. Malaysia. Russia. Having him gone is nothing new for his mother.

“But he was always home for the summer and for Christmas. He’s very family-oriented,” she said.

She choked up at times as she spoke. She cried before he called. Marc Fogel broke down as he spoke about his worry for his family. But mother and son both laughed on the phone call and made an obvious effort to keep the other’s spirits up.

The State Department has not designated Marc Fogel as wrongfully detained. Under the Levinson Act, this includes criteria such as credible belief that the individual is innocent, that they are being held because of American citizenship, that the detention is an attempt to force concessions from the United States, and that U.S. diplomacy would be necessary to secure release.

The State Department has consistently declined to comment about why Fogel has not been so designated, but it has called on Russia to release him on humanitarian grounds. Russia is unlikely to do that. In addition to Fogel being denied in August 2022, others have been rejected as well, such as Russian-British journalist Vladimir Kara-Murza in March.

A Pittsburgh sports enthusiast, Fogel measures the state of his health in terms of championships. He underwent his first back surgery in 1991.

“Remember, Mom, the Penguins just won their first Stanley Cup,” he said.

Since his arrest, Fogel said, he has been hospitalized three times at three locations for a total of about three months.

“That gives an idea of the pain I’ve dealt with,” he said in a voice message to his sister Thursday.

Fogel saw WNBA star Brittney Griner arrested for the same crime he was and watched her be released and return home. He knows that Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter, was arrested last year. Both Gershkovich and Paul Whelan, a former Marine arrested in Russia in 2018, are charged with espionage. All three were designated wrongfully detained.

On Thursday, Malphine Fogel had just received a large box of yard signs for the family’s campaign to bring home her son. They address the fact President Joe Biden has yet to say Marc Fogel’s name in public comments.

“Mr. President, Bring Marc Fogel Home,” the signs read, ending with “#FreeMarcFogel.”

Marc Fogel’s message to the president is simple.

“Please reunite me with my family. That’s one of the mantras that I repeat over and over and over, every day. At the church. In bed. Whenever I have time,” he said.

Being a history teacher, he brings a lesson with that message.

“The Declaration of Independence speaks of how all men are created equal and endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights,” Fogel said. “Let’s use those lofty words to help all of us who are here. If it can be done with some, it can be done with others. I plead with him for help.”

Fogel’s voice is strained when he talks about Griner’s release. He doesn’t begrudge her the freedom. He and his family just struggle with why the same opportunity can’t be afforded to him for the same charges.

“If some people can get released, let’s get a 63-year-old middle-class teacher released,” he said. “It’s not like I have major entities on my side. I’m the Main Street guy. I’d like to have help. Whatever they can do, I plead for it. I beg for it. Humbly. I don’t know what else to say.

“I’m not trying to fault anybody here. Just, please, bring me home.”