Hubbard travels separately in poor health after reported prison mistreatment
Russian authorities released Stephen Hubbard on Wednesday, U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff said, according to The Wall Street Journal. Witkoff arrived in St. Petersburg to meet Hubbard and is escorting him back to the United States.
Hubbard is in his mid-70s and had been jailed since the early days of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. He had been living for years in the eastern part of Russia, where authorities detained him after Kremlin troops invaded Ukraine in 2022.
A Russian court convicted Hubbard of working as a mercenary.
The State Department designated Hubbard as wrongfully detained last year. Hubbard and the United States have denied that he was a mercenary.
Witkoff and Hubbard are traveling in separate planes because of Hubbard’s poor health, according to a person familiar with the matter, who said the condition stems in part from the ill treatment Hubbard faced in a Russian prison.
Witkoff also met Russian President Vladimir Putin during his visit. He thanked Putin for Hubbard’s release and called the Kremlin leader a humanitarian. On Russian state television, Witkoff said, “Because of you he’s going home to his family.”
The Wall Street Journal described Hubbard’s release as a sign of warming ties between the Trump administration and Moscow.
The release extends the diplomatic opening documented in February, when the United States and Russia agreed to reestablish high-level military dialogue. The earlier step concerned military contacts; Hubbard’s release adds an escorted return home while Hubbard and the United States continue to reject his mercenary conviction.