In an extraordinary twist of international diplomacy intersecting with the lives of ordinary citizens, an Anchorage motorbike enthusiast named Mark Warren has become the recipient of an unexpected gift from Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.
The unusual present, a brand-new a Ural Gear Up motorcycle with a sidecar, arrived as a direct result of Warren’s offhand comments to journalists covering the high-level summit between US President Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in Alaska.
The remarkable sequence of events began when Warren, an avid rider, spoke to a Russian journalist on 13 August, just two days before the summit. He expressed his frustration at being unable to source parts for his own ageing Ural sidecar motorcycle, a difficulty he attributed to the current anti-Russian sanctions.
That moment, seemingly insignificant at the time, was captured on camera and evidently reached the highest echelons of the Russian government. Following the broadcast of the report, the head of state personally issued an order for a new bike to be delivered to the American as a present.
Footage filmed on Tuesday captured the moment Warren first laid eyes on the olive-green machine, examining it with visible astonishment before taking it for a ride accompanied by Andrey Ledenev, a Minister-Counsellor at the Russian Embassy in the United States. The entire situation has left Warren somewhat bewildered by his sudden notoriety.
It went viral, it went crazy, and I have no idea why, because I’m really just a super-duper normal guy,” Warren remarked on Tuesday. “They just interviewed some old guy on a Ural, and for some reason they think it’s cool.
Warren stated that documentation he subsequently received indicated the gift was being arranged through the diplomatic channels of the Russian Embassy in the US.
Naturally sceptical, Warren admitted his initial suspicion was that the entire offer might be an elaborate scam. However, after President Putin and President Trump departed from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson following their three-hour meeting last Friday, he received another call confirming the motorcycle’s presence at the military base.
He was then directed to a hotel in Anchorage the following day for the official handover. Arriving with his wife, Warren found the valuable motorcycle, estimated to be worth $22,000, waiting in the car park alongside six men he presumed to be Russian officials.
I dropped my jaw,” he exclaimed. “I went, ’You’ve got to be joking me.’
