Stephen Hubbard, the 74-year-old retired Michigan schoolteacher who became the last American formally labeled "wrongfully detained" inside Russia, is on his way home after more than four years behind bars — freed Wednesday in a release President Trump says he personally extracted from Vladimir Putin with no strings attached.

The release came during a visit to St. Petersburg by U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff, who met face-to-face with Putin and then greeted Hubbard himself at Pulkovo Airport. "Because of you, he's going home to his family," Witkoff told Putin, according to PBS NewsHour, which reported Witkoff went so far as to call the Russian leader "a humanitarian."

No swap, Trump insists

Trump wasted no time claiming credit, posting on Truth Social that Hubbard was freed "at the request of President Donald J. Trump" and that "there was no 'swap' necessary for this release" — a notable break from the string of prisoner exchanges, including February 2025's release of Marc Fogel and August's release of Marine veteran Robert Gilman, that have typically required the U.S. to hand something back. Speaking on the South Lawn, Trump added that the two sides "were in the midst of negotiating" and that Hubbard would not be "coming back" had those talks collapsed.

That claim comes with an asterisk. Five days before Hubbard's release, Trump waived a fresh round of congressionally mandated Russia sanctions just before they were set to take effect, a move that drew criticism even from some Republicans on Capitol Hill, according to CBS News. Trump himself tied the two together, saying that "if sanctions would have been placed, certainly those negotiations would have come to a complete and total halt" — the clearest acknowledgment yet that easing pressure on Moscow was part of the price for Hubbard's freedom.

"Because of you, he's going home to his family." — U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff, to Vladimir Putin

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov offered a tidier version of events, saying Putin acted on "humanitarian considerations" after the American side raised Hubbard's case, and that intelligence services on both sides remain "in regular contact," per NPR.

From checkpoint to penal colony

Hubbard's four-and-a-half-year ordeal began within weeks of Russia's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Russian authorities said he was captured manning a checkpoint tied to pro-Ukrainian forces; a 2024 closed-door trial convicted him of mercenary activity and sentenced him to nearly seven years in a penal colony. His family and U.S. officials have long disputed the mercenary label, describing him instead as a civilian English teacher swept up by the chaos of war. His sister, Patricia Hubbard Fox, wrote in an August open letter to Trump describing "constant beatings, torture and starvation" during his captivity.

He is now headed, in poor health, toward a reunion with family and eventual treatment at a U.S. military medical facility — the same reintegration pipeline used for other recently freed detainees, CNN reported.

The ones left behind

Hubbard's release leaves no American publicly designated "wrongfully detained" inside Russia, but advocates say that list understates the real toll. Global Reach, an advocacy group representing five Americans still held in Russian custody, said it was "grateful to the Trump Administration" while pointedly noting that families of those still jailed — some seriously ill — will struggle to understand why their loved ones weren't included in this deal. As many as ten Americans and dual nationals remain behind Russian bars by some counts, among them Aleksandr Antonov, sentenced to six years but never granted the "wrongfully detained" label that triggers higher-level U.S. diplomatic engagement.

The release lands in the middle of a politically delicate stretch for the White House, which is simultaneously fending off bipartisan criticism over its Russia sanctions reversal and managing a Ukraine peace push that Witkoff is pursuing in parallel with the prisoner diplomacy. Lawmakers from both parties who objected to the sanctions waiver now face a harder argument against it with a freed American back on U.S. soil, while Trump allies are framing Hubbard's release as proof that direct leader-to-leader deal-making succeeds where multilateral pressure campaigns stalled.

What happens next hinges largely on whether Wednesday's release is a one-off goodwill gesture or the opening move in a broader prisoner and sanctions negotiation. Witkoff is expected to continue shuttling between Washington and Moscow in the coming weeks as the broader Ukraine settlement talks continue, with advocates for the remaining detained Americans now pressing the State Department to formally add their names to the wrongfully-detained list Hubbard just vacated.