• By Ajeet Kumar
  • Wed, 20 Aug 2025 01:49 PM (IST)
  • Source:JND
Russian President Vladimir Putin gifted a brand-new motorcycle to an Alaska man after he went viral on Russian state media for complaining that the Ukraine war had made it more expensive to repair his Soviet-era bike, the New York Post reported. Ural, the motorcycle company, founded in 1941 in western Siberia, now assembles its bikes in Petropavlovsk, Kazakhstan, and distributes them through a team based in Woodinville, Washington, as per an AP report.

This marks the second such incident where the Russian side openly displayed its Soviet nostalgia. A day before the Trump-Putin meeting in Alaska, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was seen wearing a white sweatshirt with "CCCP", the abbreviation for the USSR in Russian.

Mark Warren: The lucky man

Mark Warren, a retired fire inspector from Anchorage, said he was handed the keys to a new Ural motorbike by a Russian embassy official, Andrei Ledenev, last week, shortly after Putin's high-profile meeting with US President Donald Trump.

"I have to say that this is a personal gift from the President of the Russian Federation," the Russian official told Warren in a video later broadcast on state media.

The unusual episode began on August 9, when a Russian TV crew in Anchorage stopped Warren while he was out running errands on his old Soviet-era motorcycle. They admired the vehicle but soon questioned him about the Putin-Trump summit and the economic impact of the war.

Warren mentioned that spare parts for his bike had become difficult and costly to repair due to multiple sanctions on Russia, as the manufacturing facility was located in Ukraine.

ALSO READ: Putin's Poop In A Suitcase? Bizarre Secret That Russian Bodyguards Carry Everywhere From Alaska To Paris

Days later, Warren said he received a call from the reporters, informing him that the clip had gone viral in Russia and caught Putin's attention. Initially, he dismissed their promise of a new $22,000 bike as a scam, saying it sounded "bats-t crazy”. “I dropped my jaw,” he said. “I went, ’You’ve got to be joking me.’”

"I'm speechless, it's amazing'

However, less than 24 hours after Putin's meeting with Trump, Russian embassy staff reached out to arrange the handover. Video footage showed Warren receiving the motorcycle and taking it for a test ride, the report said.

ALSO READ: Putin Sent Body Double To Alaska To Meet Trump? Online Conspiracy Theories Emerge After Netizens Spot ‘Jelly Legs’

"It's night and day. I like my old one, but this one is obviously much better. I'm speechless, it's amazing. Thank you very much," Warren said in the clip. When he was signing the paperwork taking ownership of the motorcycle from the Russian embassy, he noticed it was manufactured on August 12. “The obvious thing here is that it rolled off the showroom floor and slid into a jet within probably 24 hours,” he said.

Trump-Putin Summit

Following the Alaska meeting, President Putin lauded Trump's efforts to resolve the conflict. Pointing out the historical ties between Ukraine and Russia, he said, "We see the strive of the administration and President Trump personally to help facilitate the resolution of the Ukrainian conflict and his strive to get to the crux of the matter, to understand this history, is precious. The situation in Ukraine poses a fundamental threat to our security.

Moreover, the Ukrainian nation, and I have said it multiple times, is a brotherly nation; however strange it may sound in these conditions. We have the same roots, and everything that's happening is a tragedy for us. And a terrible wound."
 
(With inputs from agencies)