American Teacher Wrongfully Detained Under Biden Comes Home
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Freedom Is Back In Style
Retired American schoolteacher Stephen Hubbard, 74, spent four years in a Russian jail. On Wednesday, he walked free after President Donald Trump persuaded Russian leader Vladimir Putin to free him.
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Hubbard was the last American officially determined to be wrongfully detained by Russia. He was released from custody early Wednesday and was waiting at St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo Airport to fly back to the United States, special envoy Steve Witkoff said.
On Tuesday, Trump previewed that he was working on securing Hubbard’s freedom.
“Just stick with me. Nobody else was able to do it. Just stick with me,” he told reporters in the Oval Office.
“Everybody’s been after Hubbard for a long time, long before I got here,” he added.
Trump said he had been talking to Putin about Hubbard “at length.”
“I’ve asked him to release him,” he said. “We’ll see what happens.”
Hubbard is the third American wrongfully detained in Russia whose release Trump has secured in his second term. The president also negotiated the release of former Marine Robert Gilman in August and teacher Marc Fogel in February.
Hubbard was captured by Russian troops at his home in Izyum, Ukraine in April 2022. Russian prosecutors accused him of joining a Ukrainian territorial defense unit and said he received training, weapons and ammunition, and was promised $1,000 a month, Reuters reported. Hubbard’s family and lawyer disputed the charges.
In October 2024, Hubbard was convicted and handed a sentence of six years and 10 months.
Trump said in a Wednesday Truth Social post that putting sanctions on Russia would have prevented Hubbard’s release. Some Republicans, including Sen. Darline Graham, have disagreed with Trump’s decision last week to waive some additional sanctions on Russia related to fossil fuels.
“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.,” Trump wrote. “If sanctions would have been placed, certainly those negotiations would have come to a complete and total halt.”
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I am just an average American. My teen years were in the late 70s and I participated in all that that decade offered. Started working young, too young. Then I joined the Army before I graduated High School. I spent 25 years in, mostly in Infantry units. Since then I've worked in information technology positions all at small family owned companies. At this rate I'll never be a tech millionaire. When I was young I rode horses as much as I could. I do believe I should have been a cowboy. I'm getting in the saddle again by taking riding lessons and see where it goes.
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