Mark Warren, a retired fire inspector from Alaska’s Anchorage might never have expected to become a highlight of the recent summit between US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin last week in Anchorage. However, after a Russian state TV interview with Warren went viral, the Kremlin surprised him with a $22,000 Ural Gear Up motorcycle, according to a recent report published by The Associated Press.
How It All Started
Warren, who already owns a Ural motorcycle — a brand originally from Siberia which is now assembled in Kazakhstan and distributed through Washington state — was out running errands on his bike when a Russian television crew spotted him and asked for an interview about his challenges finding parts for the bike.
“It went viral, it went crazy, and I have no idea why, because I am really just a super-duper normal guy,” Warren told The Associated Press Tuesday, adding, “They just interviewed some old guy on a Ural, and for some reason they think it’s cool.”
The Surprise Gift
Just two days before the high-stakes Trump-Putin summit on August 15, Warren reportedly got a call from a Russian journalist saying, “They’ve decided to give you a bike.”
According to the report, he received paperwork indicating the gift came through the Russian Embassy in the US.
Warren, the report said, thought it might be a scam, but following the summit, he was told the bike was waiting for him at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson.
The next day, Warren and his wife went to an Anchorage hotel parking lot where six men, believed to be Russian officials, handed over the olive-green Ural motorcycle, the report said.
“I dropped my jaw,” he quipped, while further telling the publication, “I went, ‘You’ve got to be joking me.'”
All the Russians asked in return was to take pictures and interview him.
“If they want something from me, they’re gonna be sorely disappointed,” Warren had reportedly said at the time.
Riding the Gift and Concerns
Warren took the bike for a slow ride around the parking lot while being filmed by reporters and consulate staff. The only concerned he appeared to have voiced was about drawing possible backlash.
“I don’t want a ‘bunch of haters coming after me that I got a Russian motorcycle. … I don’t want this for my family,” Warren noted.
Underlining that the bike was manufactured on August 12 — just days before the summit, he said, “The obvious thing here is that it rolled off the showroom floor and slid into a jet within probably 24 hours.”
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