President Trump secured the release of Stephen Hubbard from a Russian prison without a swap, tying the deal to a sanctions pause and drawing fire from critics who wanted penalties first.
Stephen Hubbard is back on American soil. The 74-year-old Michigan native, a retired school teacher and veteran of the U.S. National Guard and Air Force, touched down in the United States on Wednesday night after more than four years in Russian custody.
President Trump confirmed the release and said Russian President Vladimir Putin freed Hubbard at his direct request. Trump said no prisoner swap was required, a break from the usual pattern of hard bargains with Moscow.
CBS News reported that Hubbard had been the last American in Russia formally declared wrongfully detained by the State Department. He is in poor health and is expected to be flown to Texas for treatment at a military hospital. Trump said Hubbard would visit the White House “in the next day or so.”
Trump announced the breakthrough early Wednesday on Truth Social. He said the request went straight to Putin in a telephone conversation last week.
Trump wrote that Hubbard “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.”
"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."
In the same set of posts, Trump said Russia acted “out of respect for President Trump,” and that the United States “was not required to give anything in return, an unprecedented situation for Russia. There was no 'swap' necessary for this release.”
"out of respect for President Trump," and the U.S. "was not required to give anything in return, an unprecedented situation for Russia. There was no 'swap' necessary for this release."
That claim matters. Past American releases from Russian prisons often came through multi-country trades. Journalist Evan Gershkovich and Marine veteran Paul Whelan were among those freed in a complicated 2024 swap. This time, Trump said Hubbard came home without that trade.
Readers who follow Trump’s day-to-day decisions also track staffing fights, including when Trump rejects Politico claims about White House personnel changes.
The release was announced during a meeting in St. Petersburg between U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and Putin. Russian state news agencies, citing Putin, said Hubbard was at St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo Airport.
Witkoff’s talks with Putin and other senior Russian officials focused on the war in Ukraine. On video of the meeting, Witkoff thanked the Russian leader for sending Hubbard home.
Witkoff told Putin:
"I wanted to thank you very much. The president sends his thanks. Our whole nation sends it's thanks," "Because of you, he's going home to his family."
He added:
"You talk so much about my president, President Trump, being a humanitarian, you are a humanitarian also, sir, and I salute that,"
Witkoff and Trump later shared a photo on social media showing Hubbard on a plane after the release.
Trump’s public agenda has covered enforcement and accountability themes elsewhere, from border rules to a $25 million fraud tipster program aimed at whistleblowers.
Trump linked Hubbard’s freedom to a decision last week to stop new sanctions on Russia from taking effect. He said the American would not have been released if those penalties had moved forward in the middle of talks.
Speaking Wednesday afternoon on the White House South Lawn after returning from a rally in South Carolina, Trump told reporters the timing was deliberate.
"We were in the midst of negotiating," "And a lot of stupid people said, and people that don't know how life works, they said, 'Why aren't you putting Russia sanctions and all this' in the midst of a negotiation to try to get a long-term hostage back from Russia. If I would have done that, you would not have Mr. Hubbard coming back."
In a later Truth Social post, Trump said “numerous people” who had pressed for the sanctions to hit on schedule “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.”
Members of Congress, including some Republicans, harshly criticized the decision to waive some sanctions just before they were due to take effect. Putin praised the move. Trump framed the choice as the price of bringing a long-held American home.
Media figures keep weighing in on Trump personally as well, as when Joy Behar invited Trump back to The View after sharp comments about his health.
Hubbard’s family maintained his innocence throughout. Russian authorities accused him of manning a checkpoint for mercenaries after he was captured in Ukraine shortly after Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. In 2024 he was sentenced to almost seven years in a penal colony.
He spent more than four years locked up. At 74, and in poor health, he now needs military hospital care in Texas. That outcome fits a hard pattern: Americans held in Russia often leave damaged by time, isolation, and harsh conditions.
Trump has used direct appeals before. In August, American and former Marine Robert Gilman was freed after his health deteriorated to a life-threatening condition. Gilman had spent more than four years imprisoned in Russia and received a humanitarian pardon following a direct appeal by Trump to Putin. Russia also released American school teacher Marc Fogel early last year.
Trump family business news still draws heavy traffic alongside policy stories, including reports that Donald Trump Jr. paid $7.6 million in a Jupiter mansion buyout.
Hubbard’s return does not empty Russian cells of U.S. citizens. As many as 10 other Americans, including dual nationals, remain in Russian custody.
One of them is Aleksandr Antonov, arrested in Russia last year and sentenced to six years. He has not been formally declared wrongfully detained by the U.S. government. His family argues he was held because he is a U.S. citizen and has urged the State Department to prioritize his case. CBS News reported earlier this year on an internal debate over that designation.
The State Department keeps a Level 4 “Do Not Travel” advisory on Russia, citing the risk of wrongful detention, arbitrary enforcement of local laws, and limited U.S. consular help. Last year the Trump administration created a “state sponsors of wrongful detention” label that gives the State Department wider power to impose sanctions, export controls, and travel limits. That tag was applied to Iran in February and Afghanistan in March. Russia has not received it.
Election rules remain another core Trump priority for his base, including when Trump vows jail for California officials who count suspected noncitizen ballots.
Trump’s account is straightforward: he asked Putin last week, paused sanctions that would have landed in the middle of the talks, and Hubbard flew home Wednesday night without a swap. Critics in Congress wanted the penalties to bite on schedule. Trump said that path would have stopped the negotiation cold.
Hubbard is expected at a Texas military hospital and then, soon, at the White House. He leaves behind a Russian case that branded a retired teacher and veteran as a checkpoint operative for mercenaries, a charge his family rejected from the start.
Other Americans are still waiting. The State Department’s wrongful-detention tools exist on paper. Russia still holds people. And the president who forced this release is arguing, in public, that pressure and timing are not the same thing when a U.S. citizen’s freedom is on the table.
Getting Americans home without trading away leverage is the standard Washington should have demanded all along, and the one voters hired Trump to enforce.
