Trump Envoy obtains release of Mark Fogel, held in Russian prison

It’s like getting free refills

 

I seem to remember another Republican president who got hostages released from Iran. Later we find out they were going to be released anyway. Trump did have conversations with Putin before the election, and so it’s quite possible, if not probable, that the release would have happened anyway since the Biden administration had still been negotiating his release. In short Biden did all the work while Trump takes all the credit.
The Thing We All Knew Finally Proved True: Reagan-Iran Edition

 

The Biden admin as I recall wanted this guy and Griner both released in exchange for the arms smuggler, but the Russians wouldn’t do that.

I don’t think “they were going to release him anyway” makes sense. The Russians obviously held him back to get something, and we gave them something. What that is we do not yet know.

 

This reminds me of when the Iranians refused to release the hostages in the early 80s. President Reagan is then inaugurated in January 1981 and boom, hostages released.

 

now we know what djt promised putin in exchange..you get to keep Crimea..I'm sure that is just the start of the payback on Putin's investment in djt, as if internal strife bordering on a constitutional crisis in the US isn't enough

US Secretary of Defense considers it "unrealistic" for Ukraine to return to pre-2014 borders

A return to Ukraine's pre-2014 borders is an "unrealistic" goal, as stated by US Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, at a NATO meeting in Brussels. He also mentioned that the US does not see Ukraine's accession to NATO as part of a peace plan to end the war in Ukraine.

"We, like you, want a sovereign and prosperous Ukraine, but we must start by recognizing that returning to Ukraine's pre-2014 borders is an unrealistic goal. Pursuing this illusory goal will only prolong the war and cause more suffering," were Pete Hegseth's words.

 

and a plus 1 to be named later

Russian held in US to be freed in exchange for Fogel release, Kremlin says

Peskov did not disclose which Russian citizen held in a U.S. jail would be repatriated, but said the United States had agreed to the release during negotiations for the return of Fogel, who had been detained in Russia since 2021.

 

A sanitized version of that thread. It was a disgrace of a thread. Lots of "do the crime do the time" posts.

 

And then there’s the rest of the story.
The Thing We All Knew Finally Proved True: Reagan-Iran Edition

 

Accused Russian money launderer is being released in exchange for Marc Fogel.

He's probably helping Trump grift on the meme coins.


Vinnik is accused of running a multibillion-dollar cryptocurrency exchange that allegedly did business with drug dealers and identity thieves.


https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/12/europe/russia-citizen-exchange-marc-fogel-intl

 

Trump worked for the Russian money launderers for much of his career.

 

we talked with Trump org in 2006 about a 2500 acre deal in the USVI. they said something similar to this back then, they had private capital to fund the deals they endorsed, just had to agree to their fee structure

look at how many of his tower units are sold to Russians


Eric Trump in 2014: ‘We have all the funding we need out of Russia’

President Trump’s son, Eric, once told a golf writer that funding for Trump golf courses come from Russia, that writer recounted in a new interview.
James Dodson during an interview Friday with Boston’s WBUR described meeting Donald Trump in 2014 and being invited to play golf at the Trump National Golf Club Charlotte.

He said asked Donald Trump how he was paying for his courses, and the now-president “sort of tossed off that he had access to $100 million,” Dodson said in the interview. Dodson said he then questioned Eric Trump, who was along for the day.

I said, ‘Eric, who’s funding? I know no banks — because of the recession, the Great Recession — have touched a golf course. You know, no one’s funding any kind of golf construction. It’s dead in the water the last four or five years,’” the writers told WBUR.

“And this is what he said. He said, ‘Well, we don’t rely on American banks. We have all the funding we need out of Russia.’ I said, ‘Really?’ And he said, ‘Oh, yeah. We’ve got some guys that really, really love golf, and they’re really invested in our programs. We just go there all the time.’”

 

Yep, a huge chunk of condos in his licensed buildings are actually owned by foreign corporations with extremely limited (basically, no) ownership info. That is because they are using his brand to buy and sell his properties amongst a set of corporations at varying degree (the brand is necessary to muck up the comps and the value of properties) to clean a lot of money.

Not surprising that the Russians would want another one of their launderers back nor that Trump would agree to do so.

 

and now they have inside people in treasury enforcement so it is literally as simple as making a call. no need for all this subterfuge anymore

 

so something very high priority was delivered by the US Air Force to Moscow today. Bitcoin wallet? Prisoner from where? Cancer medication? Epstein?

customized g650 meant for high profile mission flies in and out of Moscow from Netherlands before returning to Warsaw

Mystery as U.S. Air Force flight carrying 'sensitive cargo' lands in Moscow

 

So who did we give up or are they so top secret we can't admit to ever detaining them?

Just crypto dude or did we give him his crypto back?

Can someone tell when DOJ releases / unfreezes wallets? How much was seized/locked when he was arrested?