Russia Releases Imprisoned American Man as Trump Envoy Meets With Putin

In this photo taken from video released by the Moscow City Court Press Service, Stephen Hubbard, a U.S. citizen accused of fighting as a mercenary in Ukraine, is seen in a glass cage in the Moscow City court in Russia on Oct.

7, 2024. —Moscow City Court Press Service via AP—File photo Russia has released a retired American teacher who had been imprisoned for more than four years on charges of fighting as a mercenary in Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin told U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff of the release Wednesday, during a meeting in St.

Petersburg, according to state media.

Video from the meeting shows Witkoff thanking Putin on behalf of U.S.

President Donald Trump and the nation.

Stephen Hubbard, 74, was sentenced to nearly seven years in a penal colony in 2024, after being detained in April 2022.

Russian authorities accused the Michigan man of signing a contract with Ukraine’s military in the eastern Ukrainian city of Izyum after Russia’s full-scale invasion of the country in February 2022.

The U.S.

State Department under the Biden Administration declared that Hubbard, who was sentenced in a closed trial, had been wrongfully detained.

Trump had hinted to reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday that Hubbard’s release was pending.

"Just ​stick with me," he said, when asked about the American man’s case .

"I don't ⁠want to talk about it, but everybody has been after Hubbard for a long time, long ​before I got here.

And just remember that ​question for ⁠a couple of days from now, okay? Because I do things that nobody else can do." The release of Hubbard comes in the wake of Trump waiving sanctions on Russia in a bid to progress the controversial diesel deal he made with Putin as he attempts to lower fuel prices, which have soared in the wake of his war with Iran.