(NewsNation) — The sister of an American detained in Russia said it feels like her brother has been forgotten, especially as a possible prisoner swap for wrongfully detained American journalist Evan Gershkovich is already being discussed with Russia.

Marc Fogel, an American history teacher, has been jailed in Russia since 2021 on a cannabis charge. He was sentenced to 14 years in prison.

His sister, Anne Fogel, told NewsNation’s Adrienne Bankert on “Morning in America” that the U.S. State Department has not declared Marc Fogel’s imprisonment as wrongful detainment despite his having being arrested and incarcerated for the same thing as WNBA player Brittney Griner.

Nor has Marc’s case garnered as much international attention as Griner’s or Gershkovich’s cases.

“Today is 20 months since he’s been incarcerated. We’ve been waiting to see how things develop and we haven’t gotten much traction, I have to say,” Anne said.

Anne said it definitely feels like Marc has been forgotten, saying it feels like it’s a celebrity contest to a certain degree.

“Mark is a history teacher. A very popular history teacher, but not quite the popularity that the other two folks have,” she said. “He’s also about two or more times their age, which is disconcerting, because you know, these penal colonies aren’t really meant to be survived.”

She explained that she and her family often feel hopeless about his case.

Anne even said that she can no longer ask Marc how he is doing when she does get a chance to talk to him because he wouldn’t tell her the truth.

“I think he’s afraid of being punished,” Anne said. “I can’t put him in that position of asking him how he is. He does not respond well to it at this point. And so I’ve stopped asking.”

Instead, they talk about their family, specifically, their 94-year-old mother, who Anne said always has stories to tell their family about Marc. She said they also update Marc about his sons, his wife and their dog. It hasn’t been easy for Marc or their family, Anne said.

Anne explained that Marc had been teaching IB history for nine years at the Anglo-American School. At the time of his arrest, he was in his 10th and final and final year before retirement.

“He took 17 grams — we think it might have been less than that — of medical marijuana into Russia, which was not a good decision on his part. I think he really felt that the Russian government was going to have sympathy for his long medical record and the fact that he had a medical marijuana card,” she said. “But of course not.”