Russian President Vladimir Putin has given a brand new Ural motorcycle to an American man to score some political points. It’s not a coincidence the man who received the gift lives in Alaska, the same state Putin visited over the weekend.
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Puttin became aware of the man, Mark Warren of Anchorage, after a news report focused on the man. The report was about Americans suffering thanks to sanctions on Russia because of the Ukraine War, with Warren complaining about how much more expensive and rare parts for his old Ural motorcycle had become, says The Moscow Times.
Hearing about this and obviously wanting to look like some sort of hero, Putin arranged for a new Ural with sidecar to be sent along with his delegation to Alaska. Then the gift was given to Warren while Russian media stood by the document the event.
It would be the equivalent of Trump gifting a Harley to some guy living in Siberia in an effort to own Putin. But some people are just eating up the stunt, praising Putin for caring about Warre’s predicament.
We wonder if Warren could give the motorcycle back. Yes, there are the moral implications of taking such a gift. But even setting those aside, we wouldn’t want the thing.
First of all, there’s the rather practical reality that when that new motorcycle breaks, and trust us, it will sooner than later, getting parts for it won’t be any easier than with the guy’s old Ural. So it really doesn’t solve the problem.
Second, it’s a Ural and if Warren just loves the Russian motorcycles, he has a lot of issues. The guy did admit on camera Urals are rolling problems, yet he doesn’t get something more reliable and thus more practical.
Funny enough, the origin of Ural involves communist Russia stealing the designs of the BMW R71 before the start of WWII. The only problem was the Reds couldn’t build it properly, so Urals have quite the reputation for being junk.
Image via Reuters
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