Stephen Hubbard was released from Russia in a hostage release in the last couple of days.

Posted by Speaker Mike Johnson, Oct 25, 2026Checked Oct 26, 2026

Polygraph verdictTrue

Sources: 9 support1 context
Said: 1 time·
Confidence: 90%

Speaker Mike Johnson@SpeakerJohnsonOct 25, 2026

Multiple tier1 and tier2 sources (AP, Reuters, BBC, CBS, NPR, CNN) report that Russia freed American Stephen Hubbard on Wednesday, October 21, 2026, after roughly four years in custody, following a request from President Trump during talks with envoy Steve Witkoff.

What was said

… Now, I talked to Marco Rubio, secretary of State, at length over the weekend. I talked to the president as well on Saturday. We were together and. And what? There's a lot of nuance to this. Remember, we just had a hostage release from Russia in the last couple of days. Stephen Hubbard, they were in the midst of that release as it was ongoing. They're working to bring it into the conflict. Marco, the secretary says that they're going to have unilateral negotiation or trilateral negotiations. They're right on the verge of that. …

Speaker Mike Johnson@SpeakerJohnson · Oct 25, 2026· from the transcriptPost →

What we found

Supports. Russia freed Stephen Hubbard, a US citizen jailed for about four years, on Wednesday October 21, 2026, during talks between Putin and envoy Steve Witkoff in St. Petersburg.[1][2][3][4][5][7]

Supports. Outlets including NPR and WBUR/WLRN describe the event as the release of an American hostage, and Putin announced it at Trump's request.[5][8][9]

Supports. CNN reports Hubbard returned to American soil and is at a military facility in San Antonio, Texas, consistent with a completed release.[6]

Context. Russia and the US both denied that Hubbard's release was an exchange for Russian war blogger Mikhail Zvinchuk; the State Department said the release was a unilateral Russian decision. This bears on the mechanism, not on whether the release occurred.[10]