Putin gifts $22,000 Ural bike to Alaska man during his Trump summit

Russian President Vladimir Putin gave a local Anchorage man a new motorcycle during last week’s high-stakes summit with US President Donald Trump in Alaska. Putin met his US counterpart, Trump, for about 2.5 hours on Friday at a summit in Alaska, where the deal on the Russia-Ukraine war could not be reached.An official of the Russian embassy in the US handed Mark Warren the keys to his new Ural motorcycle with a sidecar in the Anchorage hotel parking lot, where the Russian delegation was staying. Warren, a retired fire inspector for the Municipality of Anchorage, already owned a Ural motorcycle, which he had purchased from a neighbour, CNN reported.

Vladinir Putin personally gifted an Alaskan man a brand new Russian built Ural motorcycle
After Russian TV spotted his ageing Soviet-era bike in Anchorage during the Presidents meeting“I’m speechless, it’s amazing.” pic.twitter.com/WBKm3Qcatf— Chay Bowes (@BowesChay) August 20, 2025
As per a report in the Associated Press, the gift followed a viral Russian television interview where Warren, an existing Ural owner, discussed the challenges of acquiring spare parts for his older model because of supply-and-demand issues.“It went viral, it went crazy, and I have no idea why, because I’m really just a super-duper normal guy. They just interviewed some old guy on a Ural, and for some reason they think it’s cool,” he was quoted as saying by AP.On August 13, two days before the Trump-Putin conference, Warren received a call from a Russian journalist who informed him, “They’ve decided to give you a bike.” Warren said a paper he received indicated that the gift was arranged through the Russian Embassy in the United States.Warren mentioned that initially, he suspected it was a fraud. But after Putin and Trump left Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson following their summit, Warren received another call notifying him that the bike was at the base.He was told to proceed to an Anchorage hotel the following day for the handoff. He went with his wife, and there in the parking lot, among six men he assumed to be Russians, was the olive-green Harley for $22,000. “I dropped my jaw. I went, ’You’ve got to be joking me’,” he said.In return, the Russians asked to take his picture and interview him, to which Warren said, “If they want something from me, they’re gonna be sorely disappointed.”Two reporters and a consulate representative joined him on the bike for a slow ride around a parking lot while being filmed.When signing for the bike at the Russian embassy, he noted it was manufactured on August 12, suggesting it was made and flown to Alaska within 24 hours.“The obvious thing here is that it rolled off the showroom floor and slid into a jet within probably 24 hours,” he added.Founded in 1941 in western Siberia, the motorcycle company currently assembles its bikes in Petropavlovsk, Kazakhstan, and sells them via a team based in Woodinville, Washington.

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