Russia released 74-year-old American citizen Stephen Hubbard on Wednesday, in what Dagens Nyheter describes as a goodwill gesture toward the United States. The release came as US special envoy Steve Witkoff met President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg.
Witkoff landed in the city on Wednesday morning and was told straight away that Hubbard was at the airport, waiting to board a flight back to the US with him. The meeting was the ninth face-to-face encounter between Witkoff and Putin, according to Dagens Nyheter.
Speaking after the talks, Witkoff said he welcomed the diesel agreement and thanked the Russian side for letting Hubbard go.
Why it matters
Hubbard's case had been a persistent irritant in US-Russian relations. The former teacher from Michigan was detained in 2022 and sentenced to more than six years in prison on accusations that he fought as a mercenary for Ukrainian forces.
Both US authorities and Hubbard's family and lawyer have consistently rejected the charges and the arrest as baseless, Reuters reported. His release removes one point of friction between Washington and Moscow at a moment when the two sides are discussing a possible peace framework for Ukraine.
Several outlets, including the Moscow Times, characterised the release as an evident diplomatic signal from Putin aimed at softening the negotiating atmosphere ahead of the talks.
A call from Trump and a meeting in St. Petersburg
Before Witkoff sat down with Putin, Donald Trump personally telephoned the Russian president to ask him to free the 74-year-old, according to Dagens Nyheter.
The Kremlin's foreign policy adviser, Yuri Ushakov, and spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the purpose of the St. Petersburg meeting was to let the US report back on its contacts with Ukrainian and European leaders. The two sides also continued exchanging views on "key issues" connected to a possible peace proposal, they said.
The Witkoff-Putin talks followed what were described as constructive meetings in Oslo between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and, among others, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre and Finnish President Alexander Stubb. Dagens Nyheter reports that the parties made progress there on security guarantees and an overall peace plan.
What to watch: whether the Hubbard release is followed by further gestures from Moscow as the peace discussions continue, and how the US and European allies read the St. Petersburg meeting.
