Trump’s no-concessions account of Hubbard’s release omits sanctions relief

The waiver also had a wider policy context. The Associated Press reported that it followed Trump’s announcement of a deal to import Russian diesel in an effort to curb high US fuel prices ahead of November’s midterm elections. [4]

The absence of a prisoner swap cannot by itself establish that Washington made no wider concessions. Whether Moscow demanded the waiver as a condition of releasing Hubbard remains unresolved.

Earlier releases and the Biden comparison

A release without a prisoner swap is not unprecedented. On 11 August 2026, Trump said Russia had agreed to free former US Marine Robert Gilman. “Russia asked for no one in return — No exchange took place,” he wrote, according to Reuters in a report republished by A News. That contradicts any suggestion that the absence of a swap was itself new, without establishing all the terms of Gilman’s release. [9]

There is an older, legally different example, too. Russia deported American Taylor Dudley in January 2023 following negotiations in Kaliningrad. Negotiator Bill Richardson described it as involving no prisoner exchange in an interview carried by PBS. Dudley’s deportation was not a directly comparable prison release. [11] [12]

Trump also said the Biden administration “got nowhere” in its negotiations over Hubbard. It left office with him still detained, but the State Department was publicly pressing for consular access in October 2024, and the administration designated him wrongfully detained in January 2025. Those steps document efforts, not how far confidential negotiations progressed. [7] [4] [5]

The case remained the subject of political pressure during Trump’s presidency. In a letter published on 17 August, Democratic senators urged his administration to pursue releases separately from what they described as stalled negotiations over Ukraine. [3]

Trump himself told reporters on 20 October that “everybody has been after Hubbard for a long time, long before I got here”. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, in remarks reported by Interfax, said American requests had been made for some time and that Putin had acted on humanitarian grounds. [6] [8]

Even accepting Trump’s account of the call and the absence of a swap, the leap to an unprecedented favour requiring no US concessions does not follow.