Russia gives motorcycle to Alaska residents after Trump-Putin summit

Russia gives motorcycle to Alaska residents after Trump-Putin summit

An Alaska man could be the biggest winner from the recent high-profile summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Anchorage. He drove away on a new motorcycle donated by the Russian government.

Gift from the Russian President

Putin's delegation presented Mark Warren, a retired Anchorage Township fire inspector, with a Ural Gear Up motorcycle and sidecar. This came a week after an interview with Warren by a television crew in Russia went viral. The motorcycle company, founded in Western Siberia in 1941, now produces its motorcycles in Petropavlovsk, Kazakhstan and sells them through a team based in Woodinville, Washington.

The viral interview

Warren already owned a Ural motorcycle that he bought from a neighbor. A week before the summit, he was riding this motorcycle when a Russian television crew spotted him and asked for an interview. He reported difficulties in obtaining spare parts for the machine due to problems with supply and demand.

Surprising news

"It went viral, it went crazy and I have no idea why because I'm really just a normal guy," Warren said Tuesday. “They just interviewed an old man on a Ural, and for some reason they think it’s cool.” On August 13, two days before the Trump-Putin summit to discuss the war in Ukraine, Warren received a call from the Russian journalist who told him: "They've decided to give you a motorcycle."

The handover of the motorcycle

Warren reported that a document he received confirmed that the gift was arranged through the Russian embassy in the United States. At first he thought it might be a scam. But after Putin and Trump on Friday after their three hour summit After leaving Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, he received another call informing him that the motorcycle was on base.

The next day he was escorted to a hotel in Anchorage for handover. He and his wife found the olive green motorcycle worth $22,000 in the parking lot there, along with six men he assumed were Russian.

Emotional reaction

“I was blown away,” he said. “I thought, this can’t be true.” All the Russians wanted in return was to take his photo and interview him. “If they want something from me, they will be very disappointed.” Two reporters and someone from the consulate jumped on the motorcycle and Warren drove slowly around the parking lot while a cameraman ran alongside and filmed it.

Doubt and concern

The only concern Warren had about the Urals was that it might become involved in some nefarious Russian scheme. Warren expressed, "I don't want a bunch of haters coming at me because I have a Russian motorcycle. ... I don't want that for my family." When he signed the documents transferring ownership of the motorcycle from the Russian Embassy, ​​he noted that it was manufactured on August 12th.

“The obvious thing here is that it probably rolled from the showroom to the aircraft within 24 hours,” he said.