Hubbard heads home from Russia, but Trump’s Biden comparison remains unproven

Stephen Hubbard is free and returning to the United States after more than four years in Russian custody. His release is a diplomatic success for Donald Trump’s administration, but does not substantiate the president’s accusation that Joe Biden should have secured his freedom long ago.

Trump renewed that criticism in a Truth Social post on 21 October 2026: “Stephen Hubbard and Family COMING HOME from Russia.” Biden and the Democrats should have arranged it “a long time ago”, he wrote.

A US government photograph distributed by Reuters showed Hubbard, 74, with relatives and American officials aboard a flight to the United States. His law firm, Boies Schiller Flexner, confirmed that he was free and returning home.

His sister, Patricia Hubbard Fox, told the Associated Press that she had spoken to him by telephone and was heading from Denver to San Antonio to meet him. “He’s out of Russia territory. He is free, praise God,” she said.

Russia announced the release during US envoy Steve Witkoff’s meeting with President Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin had acted at Trump’s request and taken Hubbard’s poor health into account.

“President Trump made Stephen’s freedom a top priority and kept it there,” said Hubbard’s lawyer Martin De Luca. His firm said the release had also required difficult legal work across two countries.

Earlier US efforts

Hubbard, a retired teacher from Michigan, had been living in Izyum in eastern Ukraine before Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. Russian state media said he was detained that April.

A Moscow court convicted him of being a mercenary in October 2024 after a closed trial and sentenced him to six years and ten months. His sister questioned the guilty plea reported by Russian state media; his lawyer later said Hubbard denied any combat or military role.

At the time of the sentencing, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Russia had refused consular access and Washington would keep pressing for it. The Biden administration designated Hubbard as wrongfully detained in January 2025. He nevertheless remained in custody when Biden left office.

As we reported earlier, Reuters quoted Trump on 20 October acknowledging that “everybody has been after Hubbard for a long time, long before I got here”. That acknowledgement does not contradict his view that Biden should have succeeded, but it recognises efforts predating his presidency.

The sanctions context

The release also followed a change in US policy towards Moscow. Trump had waived new Russia sanctions the previous week, Reuters and AP reported.

In another Truth Social post that morning, Trump argued that imposing sanctions would have brought the Hubbard negotiations to “a complete and total halt”. He was using the release not only to contrast his record with Biden’s, but also to defend withholding further economic pressure on Russia.

Trump also told reporters that the US “gave nothing in exchange”. Whether Moscow made the sanctions waiver a condition of Hubbard’s release remains unclear.

Even if Trump’s intervention was decisive, it does not show that Putin was willing to release Hubbard on comparable terms under Biden. The earlier opportunity assumed by Trump’s criticism has not been demonstrated.