Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that U.S. citizen Stephen Hubbard had been released during an Oct. 21 St. Petersburg meeting with U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff, ending more than four years of detention.
Putin said Hubbard was at Pulkovo Airport. EPAM Law, which represented Hubbard in Russia, said he had been pardoned, freed from a penal colony and was returning to the United States that day.
CBS News reported that Witkoff thanked Putin, saying, “Because of you, he's going home to his family.” President Donald Trump said in a Truth Social post that he had asked Putin in a phone call the previous week to release Hubbard. Trump added, “There was no ‘swap’ necessary for this release.”
TASS quoted Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying the United States had raised Hubbard’s case over time and Putin decided to release him for humanitarian reasons.
In August 2026, U.S. senators said the U.S. Department of State had designated Hubbard wrongfully detained in January 2025. They said families of detainees faced emotional and financial hardship and alleged Russia used detentions as leverage.
Interfax reported that Moscow City Court sentenced Hubbard on Oct. 7, 2024, to six years and 10 months in a general-regime penal colony on a charge of fighting as a mercenary for Ukraine. Hubbard’s U.S.-based lawyer Martin De Luca told Reuters that Hubbard denied being part of a combat unit and disputed the allegations.
CBS News reported that Russia still held up to 10 other Americans, including dual nationals. It also reported that Robert Gilman returned from Russian custody in August 2026 after receiving a humanitarian pardon following an appeal by Trump.
Five days before Putin’s announcement, the White House issued an order waiving portions of the 2026 Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act. Trump separately claimed in a Truth Social post that applying sanctions would have halted negotiations over Hubbard.
The Associated Press reported that Putin agreed to resume three-way talks involving Russia, the United States and Ukraine next month, but did not give a specific date.
