As the Russian and US presidents prepare to meet in the Alaskan capital, speculation that Vladimir Putin rejects the legitimacy of Russia’s 1867 sale of Alaska to the US has resurfaced online.
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United States President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet face-to-face in a remote army base in the Alaskan capital of Anchorage on Friday for much-anticipated talks on Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The choice of venue is practical. Mainland Alaska and Russia are just 90 kilometres apart, while Alaska's Little Diomede Island lies fewer than 4 kilometres from Russia's Big Diomede Island in the Bering Strait.
It means Putin will be able to travel for talks while avoiding the airspace of Western countries that could attempt to intercept his flight to enforce the arrest warrant of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
But the venue is not only practical, it’s also symbolic. Alaska was once a fully-fledged Russian colony.
In 1867, Russia’s Tsar Alexander II sold Alaska to the US for $7.2 million, to help pay back high debts accrued during the Crimean war of 1853-1856.
For the Kremlin, Alaska was not considered an economically significant part of its territory.
Alaska was officially proclaimed the 49th US state in 1949, and is now the largest of the US’ current 50 states.
Putin will be the first Russian president to visit Anchorage.
Choice of venue re-ignites imperialist narratives
The Anchorage summit has reignited narratives that hail Alaska a “historical” Russian land, with prominent Kremlin officials and allies quick to highlight the territory’s Russian heritage and history.
The theory that Russia will one day re-claim the US state as its own is not new, and has been peddled by several prominent Kremlin officials and allies in the past.
Last year, Russian state TV propagandist Olga Skabeyeva referred to the US territory as “our Alaska”.
Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chair of the Russian Security Council, has joked on social media about going to war with the US over the territory.
Kirill Dmitriev, a top Kremlin negotiator who also heads the Russian Direct Investment Fund, said last week that Alaska was a “Russian American” and suggested the summit could trigger closer cooperation between Moscow and Washington in the Arctic.
A 2022 billboard carrying the message “Alaska is ours”, which at that time sparked outrage among some US senators, has also resurfaced.
No publicly available evidence Moscow has nullified 1867 sale of Alaska
Speculation that Moscow is taking steps to regain the territory is also circulating widely.
That speculation has been fuelled by Trump appearing to confuse Alaska for Russia in a press conference on Monday, when he said he would travel to “Russia” to meet Putin despite having already confirmed Alaska as the venue.
Some social media users have suggested that a 2022 Russian Supreme Court ruling nullified the 1867 sale of Alaska to the US.
But Euroverify couldn’t find any official court document to corroborate that claim.
Other users have referenced a 2024 decree that purportedly declared the 1867 sale of Alaska illegal.
That decree does exist. It’s dated 18 January 2024 and allocates funds for the search, registration, and legal protection of Russia’s historic overseas assets.
We verified its contents and found it makes no reference to Alaska or any of Russia’s historical claims to the territory. Analysts however do believe that the Kremlin could use the decree to re-open historical disputes, not only in Alaska but also in former Russian territories.