ANCHORAGE: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.
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, 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, according to the New York Post.
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, the NY Post noted.
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, according to the report.
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,” according to the New York Post.
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.
“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.
Ural, the motorcycle manufacturer, was founded in Soviet Russia in 1941 but is now headquartered in Washington state. The company shifted its production to Kazakhstan after Russia Ukraine conflict, the New York Post reported.
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.” (ANI)
