Alaska man handed 'personal gift' from Putin after complaint over motorbike

Russian president Vladimir Putin has gifted an American man a Russian motorcycle after the Alaskan had complained to reporters that sanctions were making it difficult for him to get parts for his own model.

An employee of the Russian embassy in the United States handed local man Mark Warren the keys to a new Ural motorcycle in the parking lot of the Anchorage Hotel. The Russian delegation were staying there ahead of the Russia-United States summit.

The retired fire inspector said he is well aware that some people are disgusted he took an expensive gift from the Russian leader whose employee handed it over and told Mr Warren the bike was: 'a personal gift from the President of the Russian Federation.' The new khaki green Ural bike is valued at about $22,000 (£16,310) but its recipient was undeterred by the scrutiny of others and willingly accepted it despite the fact the Russian government is under U.S. Sanctions. Putin is also wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes in Ukraine and has an open warrant for his arrest.

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Mr Warren said: "I p***ed off all sorts of people. I took it. I could have not taken it, and probably p***ed off just as many people as doing that. I don’t care.”

The motorcyclist said he understood that people took a dim view of the Russian leader but told Anchorage Daily News that the goodwill gesture from Putin wasn't getting the Russian Federation anything in return from him directly. He confirmed: “They’re getting nothing from me. Nothing.”

The Russian state media described the gift as a gesture of goodwill to the people of the United States. Mr Warren stated that he doesn’t see himself as functioning as propaganda for the Russian government.

The Alaskan was gifted the new motorcycle after a chance encounter with Russian reporters on the streets of his state's capital. Ahead of the summit, a pair of journalists saw him riding the Ural brand motorcycle he bought from his neighbour a few years ago to downtown Anchorage to run some errands.

The two men who said they were from Russia's state television Channel 1 flagged him down, waving him to the side of the street, informed Mr Warren. He explained: “They said, ‘We need to talk to you.’ I went over there, and there were two journalists, and they said, ‘Do you realize this is a Russian motorcycle?' They were very nice, and then we got to talking about it.”

The unlikely meeting saw the American become the star of a news segment about the effect of economic sanctions as a result of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Mr Warren told Russian media that repairs to his bike had gotten expensive as affordable parts had become harder to find.

The clip went viral in Russia and the media star soon received several phone calls, despite him not giving the journalists his phone number. He was told that the story had even reached President Vladimir Putin, who wanted to give him a new Ural motorcycle.

The conversation put the bike directly into the geopolitical conflict at the heart of the summit. On its website, the company Ural which condemned Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine said “production ground to a halt due to [an] inability to import components and export bikes out of Russia caused by international sanctions laid on the country.”

The company was founded in what was then Soviet Russia and is now headquartered in Washington state. Ural pulled all its production out of Russia after the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine, because sanctions prevented them from exporting bikes.

At first, the retired man told his wife he thought the promise of a delivery of the new bike could be part of an elaborate scam but sure enough a sheet covering a motorcycle shaped object was ready to be unveiled in the Lakefront Hotel in Spenard's carpark by Russian officials.

Mr Warren claimed it was a "good bike" and said he will likely sell his older one so he can ride his new present. When Russian reporters asked the recipient of Putin's gift about the summit between U.S. and Russian leaders, Mr Warren responded that he had been optimistic.

“I just said, ‘I just hope something good comes out of it,’” he added.