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Russia gives Alaskan man motorcycle after Trump-Putin meeting
An Alaskan man received a motorcycle as a gift from Russia after the Trump-Putin summit. The unexpected gesture raises questions about relations between the two countries.
Russia gives Alaskan man motorcycle after Trump-Putin meeting
An Alaska man could emerge as the biggest winner from the recent summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Anchorage. He left on a new motorcycle given to him by the Russian government.
The motorcycle gift from the Russian delegation
Putin's delegation presented Mark Warren, a former Anchorage Township fire inspector, with a Ural Gear Up motorcycle and sidecar. This came a week after a viral interview a television crew conducted with Warren in Russia. The motorcycle company, founded in western Siberia in 1941, now assembles its motorcycles in Petropavlovsk, Kazakhstan and sells them through a team based in Woodinville, Washington.
The unexpected notoriety
Warren already owned a Ural motorcycle that he had purchased from a neighbor. He was traveling with it a week before the summit when a Russian television crew spotted him and asked for an interview. During the conversation, Warren talked about the difficulties he had getting parts for his motorcycle due to supply and demand issues.
"It went viral, it went viral, and I have no idea why. I'm 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.”
The call from Russia
On August 13, two days before the Trump-Putin summit, Warren received a call from a Russian journalist who told him: “They’ve decided to give you a motorcycle.” Warren said a document he received indicated the gift was arranged through the Russian embassy in the United States, which did not immediately respond to an inquiry.
Doubt and surprise
At first, Warren thought it might be a scam. After Putin and Trump left Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson after their three-hour summit last Friday, he received another call informing him that the motorcycle was at the base.
He was told to go to a hotel in Anchorage the next day to pick up the motorcycle. He drove there with his wife, and the olive-green motorcycle, estimated to be worth $22,000, was parked in the parking garage with six men he assumed were Russian.
An unexpected experience
“My jaw dropped,” he said. “I thought you were kidding me.” The Russians' only requirements were a photo shoot and an interview with him. “If they want something from me, they will be sorely disappointed.” Two reporters and someone from the consulate jumped on the bike with him, and he rode slowly around the parking lot while a cameraman walked alongside him, filming.
Concerns about the connection to Russia
Warren's only concern was that he might be involved in some dark Russian plot. "I don't want a group of haters coming at me because I got a Russian motorcycle. ... I don't want that for my family."
The date of manufacture of the motorcycle
When he signed the papers to take delivery of the motorcycle from the Russian embassy, he noted that it was manufactured on August 12th. “The obvious thing here is that it was probably loaded from the showroom onto a plane within 24 hours,” he said.