Anchorage, US (AP) – Aug 13: As US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin prepare for their meeting in Alaska on Friday, they’re set to add another chapter to the 49th state's long and storied history with Russia and international diplomacy.
Beginning in the early 18th century, Siberian fur traders crossed the Bering Sea, leaving an enduring Russian footprint on Alaskan soil. The oldest standing structure in Anchorage is a Russian Orthodox church, and many native Alaskans bear Russian surnames.
The geographical proximity between the US and Russia is strikingly evident — Little Diomede Island in Alaska lies less than 5 kilometers from Russia’s Big Diomede, highlighting the veracity of former Governor Sarah Palin’s remark during the 2008 presidential race: “You can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska.” Despite the quips it spawned regarding her foreign policy expertise, Palin’s statement holds geographical truth.
Alaska has belonged to the United States since its acquisition in 1867, which was consequently the site of the only World War II battle fought on North American soil. The state also found itself at the heart of Cold War tensions and served as a meeting ground for numerous US and international leaders.
Russian Relations and Seward’s Purchase
Siberian trappers settled in places like Sitka and Kodiak Island, where the Russian population never exceeded roughly 400 permanent inhabitants, according to the US State Department’s Office of the Historian.
Russian settlers aggressively coerced native Alaskans into hunting sea otters and other marine life for their fur, noted Ian Hartman, a history professor at the University of Alaska Anchorage.
“The relationship was clear from the start,” said Hartman. “It was primarily a short-term extraction operation rather than a plan for prolonged settlement.” Meanwhile, many Alaska Natives were baptized by Russian Orthodox missionaries.
By 1867, with sea otters near extinction and Russia financially drained by the Crimean War, Czar Alexander II sold Alaska to the US for USD 7.2 million. He foresaw that Russia couldn’t defend the region against imminent threats from the US or Great Britain, prompting the sale, which skeptics dubbed “Seward’s Folly.” Opinions shifted when gold was discovered in the Klondike in 1896.
Strategic Importance in WWII and the Cold War
Alaska’s critical strategic importance was realized in the 20th century. The island of Attu, at the westernmost point of the Aleutian chain and closer to Russia than the North American mainland, was captured by Japanese forces during World War II. The 1943 battle to reclaim Attu became known as the war’s “forgotten battle.”
During the Cold War, fears surged that the Soviets might launch attacks via Alaska, potentially flying over the North Pole to deliver nuclear payloads. In response, the US military built a radar chain linked to an anti-aircraft system.
The military was pivotal in constructing Alaskan infrastructure, including roads and some communities, knowledge that later propelled private enterprise endeavors like oil drilling and the trans-Alaska pipeline.
Last year, the Pentagon emphasized the need for advanced investments in sensor systems, communications, and space-based technologies in the Arctic, striving to counterbalance Russian and Chinese developments in the region. This included dispatching around 130 soldiers to a remote Aleutian island amid escalating sightings of Russian military aircraft and vessels nearing US territory.
Notable Diplomatic Visits
President Putin will be the first Russian leader to visit Alaska, joining a roster of prestigious figures who have previously passed through.
In 1971, Japanese Emperor Hirohito stopped in Anchorage en route to Europe to meet with President Richard Nixon. In 1984, large crowds gathered in Fairbanks to witness President Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II’s meeting at the airport.
President Barack Obama’s 2015 visit marked the first by a sitting US president north of the Arctic Circle, underscoring the perils of climate change.
In 2017, Gov. Bill Walker welcomed Chinese President Xi Jinping at Anchorage’s airport before a brief city tour. Conversely, Anchorage was the setting for a far tenser exchange four years later when top US and Chinese officials convened in their first face-to-face meeting since President Joe Biden assumed office two months prior.
Opposition to Alaska as Summit Site
Since President Putin's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Alaskans’ sentiments toward Russia have notably soured. The Anchorage Assembly has terminated its three-decade-old sister city relationship with Magadan, Russia, while the Juneau Assembly penned a letter of concern to its sister city, Vladivostok.
The organization Stand Up Alaska scheduled rallies against Putin on Thursday and Friday, signaling widespread disapproval.
Dimitry Shein, who fled the Soviet Union in the 1990s and unsuccessfully ran for Alaska’s sole House seat in 2018, voiced dismay over Trump’s increasingly authoritarian stance.
“Russia and the US increasingly mirror each other,” Shein observed grimly.
Many analysts assert that placing the summit in Alaska carries problematic symbolism. As Nigel Gould-Davies, ex-British Ambassador to Belarus and senior fellow at the International Institute of Strategic Studies in London, warns, “It’s easy to imagine Putin arguing, ‘We gave you Alaska; why shouldn’t Ukraine cede part of its territory to us?’”
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