The successful release of a prisoner came with a unique diplomatic détente as President Donald Trump declared, “What a difference a President makes!”
Among the myriad disasters of President Joe Biden’s administration, it was often reported that many Americans were left held captive by foreign nations, including in Gaza and Russia. Where it concerned the latter, unlike trades handing over an arms dealer for an athlete, Trump announced Wednesday that retired teacher Stephen Hubbard was released with no need for reciprocity, “an unprecedented situation for Russia.”
A morning statement released on social media began, “Stephen Hubbard, taken four years ago by Russia during the Biden Administration, was just released from prison, at the request of President Donald J. Trump, made directly to President Vladimir Putin in a telephone conversation last week.”
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— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) October 21, 2026
“Stephen is on his way back home and will soon be with his family. The United States, out of respect for President Trump, was not required to give anything in return — an unprecedented situation for Russia,” continued the post. “There was no ‘swap’ necessary for this release.”
“This major return should have taken place long ago through the Biden Administration, which got nowhere in its negotiations with the Kremlin. Stephen is on his way back home. ‘Welcome home Stephen, it’s great to have you back,’ stated President Trump,” the statement concluded.
Hubbard, a septuagenarian, had been sentenced to almost seven years in a Russian prison in 2024 after pleading guilty to being a mercenary for Ukraine. At the time, he had already been held for over two years, and his sister maintained the charges didn’t add up as she described Hubbard, who originally moved to Ukraine in 2014, as “more of a pacifist” who never owned a gun.
After the initial statement, a follow-up on Truth Social took aim at those critical of the chief executive’s tactics: “Numerous people, who requested that sanctions be immediately imposed on Russia, have called to apologize to President Trump in that they didn’t know that he was negotiating the release of Stephen Hubbard, a truly big and important deal for the U.S. If sanctions would have been placed, certainly those negotiations would have come to a complete and total halt.”
The unilateral prisoner release stood in stark contrast to a particular deal negotiated under Biden when, in 2022, WNBA player Brittney Griner was released — after being arrested for traveling into Russia with drugs — in exchange for notorious arms dealer Viktor “Merchant of Death” Bout.
Meanwhile, it took roughly two more years before former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan’s release from a Russian prison for an espionage conviction.
“I turned down a deal with Russia for a one on one swap of the so-called Merchant of Death for Paul Whelan,” Trump had said after Biden’s deal for the basketballer. “I wouldn’t have made the deal for a hundred people in exchange for someone that has killed untold numbers of people with his arms deal.”
The president also assured he would have seen to Whelan’s release and that Griner wouldn’t have been arrested in the first place if he was in office at the time.
Yet another post to Truth Social on the matter commented on the contrast between administrations, “Biden should have done the Hubbard release long ago! What a difference a President makes!”
As word of the release spread, U.S. special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff had an audience with Putin, whom he thanked in person for the prisoner’s release.
“Because of you, he’s going home to his family,” said the official, who recounted how he recently met with Hubbard’s son, a Greek Orthodox priest.
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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