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How random chat got Alaskan man a Ural bike from Putin ahead of Russia-US summit
A Russian embassy official handed the man, the keys to a brand-new Ural bike in the parking lot of the Anchorage hotel ahead of Ukraine talks.
In an interesting twist to last week’s high-stakes summit between US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in Alaska, a local Anchorage man became the proud new owner of a Ural motorcycle.
A Russian embassy official handed the man, identified as Mark Warren, the keys to a brand-new Ural bike in the parking lot of the Anchorage hotel where the Russian delegation was staying.
"I have to say that this is a personal gift from the President of the Russian Federation," Andrei Ledenev, the embassy employee, told Warren.
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Warren, white-haired and bespectacled, looked stunned as he climbed aboard his new ride, with Ledenev behind him and another man wedged into the classic Ural sidecar.
The three took the bike for a celebratory spin — all smiles and cameras rolling.
"It's night and day," Warren said. "I like my old one, but this one is obviously much better. I'm speechless, it's amazing. Thank you very much," he said.
Street chat to surprise Putin
The whole episode began by chance after Russian state TV reporters were talking to people of Anchorage ahead of the Putin-Trump talks when they spotted Warren with his old Ural motorcycle, a Soviet-era machine he said he loved but struggled to maintain.
Warren told a reporter, Valentin Bogdanov, that he struggled to obtain spare parts for the bike, including a new starter, because the manufacturing plant is "located in Ukraine."
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"So for you, if they resolve this conflict here in Alaska, I mean Putin and Trump, it will be good?" Bogdanov asks Warren.
"Yes, it will be good," the Alaskan man replied.
Ural bikes
Ural, which is headquartered in Washington State, says that all of its motorcycles are assembled in Kazakhstan.
The company pulled all its production out of Russia after the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine.
Ural did not immediately reply to a request for comment outside working hours in the US.
(with inputs from Reuters)
