President Vladimir Putin's delegation surprised a retired Anchorage fire inspector with a new Ural sidecar motorcycle during their visit to Alaska for a summit with then-President Donald Trump, the Associated Press reported on 19/8/2025.
Mark Warren, an avid motorcyclist, had purchased a used Ural from a neighbor. A week before the Russia-US summit on 15/8, Warren was riding his sidecar when he encountered a crew from the Russian television station Rossia 1 and was interviewed.
He discussed the difficulties in finding parts for his Ural due to Western sanctions against Russia. The interview gained traction in Russia. On 13/8, two days before the summit, Warren received a call informing him that Putin's delegation wanted to gift him a new motorcycle.
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Warren rides the motorcycle gifted by President Putin in Alaska on 18/8. Photo: AP |
Warren rides the motorcycle gifted by President Putin in Alaska on 18/8. Photo: AP
Warren also received documentation indicating the gift was arranged through the Russian embassy in the US. Initially skeptical, thinking it was a prank, he received confirmation after Putin and Trump left Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson following the summit. The motorcycle had been delivered to the base.
The next day, Warren, accompanied by his wife, went to a hotel parking lot in Anchorage. There, he met 6 Russian officials and reporters, along with a $22,000 olive-green Ural motorcycle.
"This is a personal gift from the president of Russia", Russian embassy official Andrei Ledenev said, handing Warren the keys.
"My jaw dropped", Warren recalled. "I said, 'You've got to be kidding me.'" Warren described the new motorcycle as "night and day" compared to his old one. He took it for a test drive with Ledenev in the sidecar and another Russian official in the trunk.
While signing the ownership transfer paperwork from the Russian embassy, Warren noticed the motorcycle's production date: 12/8.
The Ural Motorcycle company, founded in 1941 in western Siberia, now assembles motorcycles in Petropavlovsk, Kazakhstan, and distributes them in the US through a group based in Woodinville, Washington.
Duc Trung (AP, Rossia 1, Moscow Times)
