Accidentally Meeting Russian TV Crew, Alaskan Man Gets A New Motorbike From President Putin

JAKARTA - The Alaskan man received an inconceivable gift, a new motorbike from the Russian leader, when President Vladimir Putin met with President Donald Trump in a meeting titled "2025 Russia-United States Summit" last week.

The two leaders of the country held a meeting at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, United States on August 15. While the lucky man is Mark Warren.

President Putin's delegation awarded Ural Gear Up's motorbike with a insert to the retired Municipality of Anchorage fire fighting inspector, after his interview with the television crew went viral in Russia.

Warren already owns one Ural motorcycle, which was bought from his neighbor. He was going shopping on the motorbike a week before the summit when Russian television crew saw him and asked for an interview.

In the interview, Warren told the crew about the difficulty of getting spare parts for the bike due to supply and demand issues.

"It's viral, excited, and I don't know why, because I'm actually just an ordinary person," Warren said.

"They just interviewed an old man in Ural, and somehow they thought it was cool," he added.

Ural, a motorcycle company founded in 1941 in western Siberia, Russia is now assembling its motorcycle in Petropavlovsk, Kazakhstan, and distributing it through a Woodinville-based team in Washington.

On August 13, two days before the Trump-Putin summit to discuss the war in Ukraine, Warren received a call from Russian journalists, who told him, "They have decided to give you a bicycle."

Warren said a document he received showed the prize was regulated through the Russian Embassy in the US.

Initially, Warren thought it might be a scam. However, after President Putin and President Trump left Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson after their three-hour summit last Friday, he received another call telling him the bike was at the base.

Warren was then directed to go to a hotel in Anchorage the next day for his handover. He went with his wife, and there, in the parking lot, along with six men he suspected were Russians, there was an olive green motorbike, worth $22,000.

"I was taken into account," he said.

"I said, 'You must be kidding,'" he said.

The Russians just asked me to be photographed and interviewed, he said: "If they wanted something from me, they would be very disappointed."

Two reporters and someone from the consulate got on the bike with him, and he drove slowly around the parking lot while a cameraman ran beside him and recorded it.

His only concern about bringing Ural in is that he may be involved in Russia's malicious scheme.

Warren said he didn't want a group of haters to chase after me because I got a Russian motorcycle. I don't want this to happen to my family."

When signing documents for the handover of motorcycle ownership from the Russian Embassy, he saw the motorcycle produced on August 12.

"What is clear is that the motorbike slid from the floor of the showroom and slid into the jet in about 24 hours," he said.