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ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — It’s been a week of political intrigue in Anchorage with the international summit meeting between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. It’s also a week that for one retired Alaska fire inspector may have changed his life and certainly his transportation. In the three-hour Trump-Putin summit on the sidelines of the Ukraine war last Friday, a retired Alaska fire inspector was cruising on his motorcycle making personal purchases around town.

But things got a little surreal when he got stopped by a Russian television reporter who wanted to interview him about his motorcycle. The man from the Russian TV station apparently decided that the Alaskan’s answer to a question about his motorcycle was “golden” and he put the video on his station’s website, where it went viral in Russia.

The problem, which Putin apparently agreed to solve, was that parts were hard to get and demand outstripped supply, so Warren had to maintain the bike himself. Asked why the Russian crew decided to show up with the new bike for Warren, he said: “I have no idea. I don’t know how they did it. We’re thinking that they had to have it made real quick. It had to have rolled off the showroom floor and slid into a jet within probably 24 hours.”

Warren said he wasn’t trying to pick Putin’s brain, but by chance the Russian leader was there in Anchorage and a new Ural motorcycle with sidecar appeared in the Alaskan’s parking lot after the meeting, the AP reported.

“I mean, what are the odds of that, and it all came from one question from this Russian TV reporter,” Warren said, chuckling. “I dropped my jaw. I went, ‘You’ve got to be joking me.’ And they didn’t joke,” he said, shaking his head.

Warren got a heads up from the Russian reporter that the vehicle was coming, but for Warren, there were nagging questions about why a U.S. citizen is getting such a large and generous gift from a foreign power.

“I have no idea where the Russians will come down on this war. But I felt a little funny about this, like should I take this?” Warren said. “My only reservation is that I might somehow be implicated in some nefarious Russian scheme. I don’t want a bunch of haters coming after me that I got a Russian motorcycle. … I don’t want this for my family.”

Warren’s first impression of the shiny olive-green Ural Gear Up with the sidecar was that it had to be a joke. He said the Russians did ask him to get in the bike for some video, but that was all they wanted from him.

Warren, whose first name means “cautious warrior,” said he didn’t even have to pay for the vehicle. He’s already thinking about upgrading his other Ural, which he bought from a neighbor for $7,000.

“They wanted my picture taken, and then they interviewed me again,” he said, as his wife and other reporters watched. “We all piled into the sidecar,” he said, noting that Russians gave him instructions to go to a hotel near the rodeo grounds.

After the ride in the parking lot, the Alaskan couple were back to reality. Warren also admitted that he’s a little gun shy about the whole matter since accepting the Ural from the Russians.

He said he was astounded the bike was brought to him after a random road stop. It’s not like Trump came and picked him up on the street. “It was free, and it’s a really cool bike,” Warren said.

A $22,000 Motorcycle

Warren, an Alaska fire inspector for 40 years, now owns two. The older one had been purchased used from a neighbor, and keeping it running was an adventure. Warren said he was asked to go to the hotel where the bike was to be delivered and that’s where he and his wife were told to show up.

“They weren’t joking,” Warren said. “I got in and rode it around a little bit,” he added, noting that the Russians didn’t ask for much.

Warren said he didn’t understand how he was able to be delivered such a nice vehicle without any strings attached. It’s not like the Russians were saying he had to provide information or was being given a job opportunity.

Warren drives to work in downtown Anchorage and said the experience has made him more cautious of outsiders. “It’s a freebie and I have no idea why they would do this,” he said of the new motorcycle. He noted that after the interview, he got a call from the Russian journalist that the motorcycle had been ordered and it should be here soon, probably after the meeting between Trump and Putin.

Warren, an American, said he didn’t feel like he was being used by the Russians, but said with Putin in town, there was probably pressure to find something to impress. But for Warren, a new, $22,000 motorcycle is a pretty nice present. “I’ve never wanted a Russian motorcycle, but now I do,” Warren said with a grin.

The Ural Gear Up with sidecar has a luggage space at the back with a flat floor at its rear end that can be used for storage or for a passenger. Ural, based in Petropavlovsk, Kazakhstan, assembled the motorcycles but shipped them to the U.S. via a team in Woodinville, Washington.