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How did an Anchorage man come to be gifted a motorcycle from Vladimir Putin?
By Michelle Theriault Boots
Published: 1 day ago
Alaska resident Mark Warren received a new Ural motorcycle as a "personal gift" from Russian President Vladimir Putin the day after Putin's meeting with President Donald Trump. Photographed on Monday, Aug. 18, 2025. (Bill Roth / ADN)
No news of a Ukraine war ceasefire came out of the closely watched international summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Anchorage last week.
But one of the stranger stories to surface from the event was that of an Anchorage-area man who was given — on camera — a new motorcycle by Russian officials, who explained the bike was a “personal gift” from Putin.
That man is Mark Warren, a retired fire inspector who, through a head-spinning series of events, came to own a new motorcycle that carries a lot of moral baggage and questions with it.
On Monday, Warren was fielding multiple media calls about the motorcycle situation.
Warren says he is well aware that some people are horrified he took an expensive gift — a similar new Ural motorcycle is valued at about $22,000 — from Putin, whose government is under U.S. sanctions and who has an open arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court for war crimes in Ukraine.
He knows people are talking about him online, though he hasn’t looked at the comments himself. He says he is very aware some people “take a very dim view of Putin.”
“I pissed off all sorts of people,” he said. “I took it. I could have not taken it, and probably pissed off just as many people as doing that. I don’t care.”
Alaska resident Mark Warren received a new Ural motorcycle as a "personal gift" from Russian President Vladimir Putin the day after Putin's meeting with President Donald Trump. (Bill Roth / ADN)
By Warren’s telling, it all started Aug. 7 when the retired fire inspector drove the Ural brand motorcycle he bought from his neighbor a few years ago to downtown Anchorage to run errands.
Two men flagged him down, waving him to the side of the street, he said.
“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?’ Well, yeah,” said Warren. “They were very nice, and then we got to talking about it.”
The two men were Russian television journalists. Warren became the star of a news segment about the impact of economic sanctions as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with Warren telling them that repairs to his bike had gotten expensive and parts harder to find — placing the bike directly into the geopolitical conflict at the heart of the upcoming summit.
The bike was manufactured by Ural, a company founded in what was then Soviet Russia and which is now headquartered in Washington state. On its website, Ural says it condemned Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine and “production ground to a halt due to inability to import components and export bikes out of Russia caused by international sanctions laid on the country.”
Eventually, the reporters asked Warren about the upcoming summit between U.S. and Russian leaders the following week.
“I just said, ‘I just hope something good comes out of it,’” he said.
Warren said he thought little of it until Aug. 13, when he fielded a phone call from one of those journalists — he hadn’t given them his phone number — who said the clip had gone viral in Russia.
The man told him that it had even reached President Vladimir Putin, who wanted to give him a new Ural motorcycle, he said.
The next call was from someone in the Russian government, and the message was, “We’re gonna get you a bike,” Warren said.
Warren said his reaction to the offer was, “OK, that’s fine.”
But he remained skeptical because it all sounded “bats--t crazy,” he said: Vladimir Putin was going to give him a new motorcycle because he couldn’t find parts for his? He told his wife he suspected a scam.
Then, on Friday night, after the three-hour Trump-Putin summit on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson had ended and both leaders had departed without news of a Ukraine war ceasefire agreement and without answering questions from reporters, Warren got another phone call.
This time, it was a Russian official.
“He calls and says, ‘We have your bike,’” Warren said. “‘It’s on the base, but we’re trying to figure out how to get it to you.’”
The bike, the consulate official said, had actually flown from Russia on the jet with Putin.
Warren had his doubts. But Saturday morning came, and with it another phone call: Could Warren and his wife meet the Russians at the Lakefront Hotel in Spenard? They could.
When they showed up, a small group of Russian officials and a cameraman were waiting in the parking lot. A sheet was draped over something motorcycle-shaped.
A camera was trained on the couple.
“Looks like a bike,” Warren said cautiously as they approached, according to a video that has been broadcast by Russian state news.
With a flourish, the men unveiled a new khaki green Ural motorcycle.
“This is a personal gift from the president of the Russian Federation,” the man told Warren.
Alaska resident Mark Warren received a new Ural motorcycle, right, as a "personal gift" from Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Bill Roth / ADN)
Warren thanked them. They filmed him riding it around the parking lot.
Later, he discovered that the motorcycle was manufactured on Aug. 12, meaning it must have been quickly procured. He’s still trying to get a title for it, and had to trailer it to his home south of Anchorage. Paperwork appears to show the bike was made in Russia.
He’s still shaking his head at the series of events. He’ll probably sell his other bike and ride this one, he said.
“It’s a good bike.”
Video of the motorcycle gifting has been played on Russian TV, and a story ended up on a newswire.
By Michelle Theriault Boots
Published: 1 day ago
No news of a Ukraine war ceasefire came out of the closely watched international summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Anchorage last week.
But one of the stranger stories to surface from the event was that of an Anchorage-area man who was given — on camera — a new motorcycle by Russian officials, who explained the bike was a “personal gift” from Putin.
That man is Mark Warren, a retired fire inspector who, through a head-spinning series of events, came to own a new motorcycle that carries a lot of moral baggage and questions with it.
On Monday, Warren was fielding multiple media calls about the motorcycle situation.
Warren says he is well aware that some people are horrified he took an expensive gift — a similar new Ural motorcycle is valued at about $22,000 — from Putin, whose government is under U.S. sanctions and who has an open arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court for war crimes in Ukraine.
He knows people are talking about him online, though he hasn’t looked at the comments himself. He says he is very aware some people “take a very dim view of Putin.”
“I pissed off all sorts of people,” he said. “I took it. I could have not taken it, and probably pissed off just as many people as doing that. I don’t care.”
By Warren’s telling, it all started Aug. 7 when the retired fire inspector drove the Ural brand motorcycle he bought from his neighbor a few years ago to downtown Anchorage to run errands.
Two men flagged him down, waving him to the side of the street, he said.
“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?’ Well, yeah,” said Warren. “They were very nice, and then we got to talking about it.”
The two men were Russian television journalists. Warren became the star of a news segment about the impact of economic sanctions as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with Warren telling them that repairs to his bike had gotten expensive and parts harder to find — placing the bike directly into the geopolitical conflict at the heart of the upcoming summit.
The bike was manufactured by Ural, a company founded in what was then Soviet Russia and which is now headquartered in Washington state. On its website, Ural says it condemned Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine and “production ground to a halt due to inability to import components and export bikes out of Russia caused by international sanctions laid on the country.”
Eventually, the reporters asked Warren about the upcoming summit between U.S. and Russian leaders the following week.
“I just said, ‘I just hope something good comes out of it,’” he said.
Warren said he thought little of it until Aug. 13, when he fielded a phone call from one of those journalists — he hadn’t given them his phone number — who said the clip had gone viral in Russia.
The man told him that it had even reached President Vladimir Putin, who wanted to give him a new Ural motorcycle, he said.
The next call was from someone in the Russian government, and the message was, “We’re gonna get you a bike,” Warren said.
Warren said his reaction to the offer was, “OK, that’s fine.”
But he remained skeptical because it all sounded “bats--t crazy,” he said: Vladimir Putin was going to give him a new motorcycle because he couldn’t find parts for his? He told his wife he suspected a scam.
Then, on Friday night, after the three-hour Trump-Putin summit on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson had ended and both leaders had departed without news of a Ukraine war ceasefire agreement and without answering questions from reporters, Warren got another phone call.
This time, it was a Russian official.
“He calls and says, ‘We have your bike,’” Warren said. “‘It’s on the base, but we’re trying to figure out how to get it to you.’”
The bike, the consulate official said, had actually flown from Russia on the jet with Putin.
Warren had his doubts. But Saturday morning came, and with it another phone call: Could Warren and his wife meet the Russians at the Lakefront Hotel in Spenard? They could.
When they showed up, a small group of Russian officials and a cameraman were waiting in the parking lot. A sheet was draped over something motorcycle-shaped.
A camera was trained on the couple.
“Looks like a bike,” Warren said cautiously as they approached, according to a video that has been broadcast by Russian state news.
With a flourish, the men unveiled a new khaki green Ural motorcycle.
“This is a personal gift from the president of the Russian Federation,” the man told Warren.
Warren thanked them. They filmed him riding it around the parking lot.
Later, he discovered that the motorcycle was manufactured on Aug. 12, meaning it must have been quickly procured. He’s still trying to get a title for it, and had to trailer it to his home south of Anchorage. Paperwork appears to show the bike was made in Russia.
He’s still shaking his head at the series of events. He’ll probably sell his other bike and ride this one, he said.
“It’s a good bike.”
Video of the motorcycle gifting has been played on Russian TV, and a story ended up on a newswire.
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