Putin Ally Calls for Alaska's Return to Russia

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Newsweek

Published Dec 28, 2024 at 3:05 PM EST Updated Dec 28, 2024 at 4:18 PM EST


Russian TV host Vladimir Solovyov, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, recently called for Alaska's return to Russia during a recent Russian-state media program. Newsweek has reached out to Russia's foreign ministry and the U.S. State Department via email for comment.

Why It Matters

Alaska once belonged to Russia. In 1867, it was sold to the United States after then-President Andrew Johnson signed the Alaska Treaty. It gained the status of a state on January 3, 1959. Alaska and Russia are positioned about 53 miles apart at their closest point. Tensions around Russia and Alaska intensified in January 2024 when reports surfaced that Putin was looking into reobtaining Alaska, reviving an effort pushed by Russian media throughout the ongoing war in Ukraine that Moscow could seize the state.

Tensions remain high between North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and Russia amid the Russian-Ukraine war as NATO leaders have increasingly warned that direct conflict with Moscow is a realistic danger. This comes after Putin and senior Russian officials have repeatedly threatened nuclear escalation against Kyiv and its Western partners since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Last month, Putin upped Moscow's nuclear rhetoric after the U.S. allowed Kyiv to use longer-range ATACMS to strike inside Russia, formalizing changes to his country's nuclear doctrine that lowers the threshold for atomic weapons use. Along with the nuclear threat, NATO members such as Germany and the Baltic states have accused Moscow of hybrid attacks and said after the Ukraine war, Moscow could then make a move on countries in the alliance.

Read more: https://www.newsweek.com/vladimir-solovyov-calls-alaskas-return-russia-2006979

[Rhiannon12866]

1. Good Grief! How long are these ridiculous claims going to go on??

[Justice matters.]

16. For as long as some greedy oligarch(s) will keep making big profits

from that continuing sh!t show.

[NotHardly]

17. Dueling dicks

[Irish_Dem]

56. They are just getting started. They are dividing up the world.

It appears it has already been decided.

[keithbvadu2]

2. "Putin ally" - Not Trump?

[SergeStorms]

32. Trump isn't so much an ally.....

as he is a fawning fan-boy, or a mewling sycophant, even. Trump worships Putin.

They both make me physically ill.

[Walleye]

3. Dear Lisa Murkowski, how about switching to the Democratic Party now?

[RazorbackExpat]

47. She can't switch

because she knows that switching from R to D in Alaska would be committing political suicide

[99MainSt]

54. It's not impossible

It's possible some moderate Republican members of Congress become so disgusted with the Trump Administration that they switch parties, giving Democrats the majority in the Senate and House. It would only take a small few. If that happened, much of Trump's agenda would grind to a screeching halt.

[Walleye]

55. Unfortunately, it seems like they are all yellow-bellied cowards

[C0RI0LANUS]

4. In Albert Camus' play "Caligula," the emperor claimed the moon was his and ordered the army to capture it.

[DetlefK]

5. Fun Fact: All russian territory east of Ukraine was conquered from natives.

The original medieval kingdom of Russia, the Kievan Russ and its capital Kijv, stretched from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea, across what is modern-day Belarus and modern-day Ukraine. From there, it expanded east with various wars of conquest (the capital was relocated eastwards to Moscow) until it eventually reached the Pacific Ocean.

Maybe Russia should return all their stolen territories to the natives it has subjugated. Isn't it odd that the vast majority of taxpayer-money gets invested into Moscow and St. Petersburg, in classical ethnic-russian territory, while the eastern territories where other ethnicities live get next to nothing?

[C0RI0LANUS]

24. Excellent insight. Both internal empires are parallel except the Russians yelled "Eastward, Ho!"

19th-century US subjugants:





20th-century Czarist subjugants:

[brush]

26. Excellent historical comparisom...and photos.

[C0RI0LANUS]

28. Thanks, brush, but the preceding DU-er takes the credit. BTW: Here is the film cosmonauts watch before launch.

"White Sun of the Desert" (1970) is about a Soviet soldier fighting in Turkmenistan and is watched by cosmonauts for good luck.

[ck4829]

49. Good to know

[RVN VET71]

6. Same Russky also mentioned California in his spiel about recapturing Russian territory, as well as Hawaii.

I know the Russians had established an outpost in California and may lay an absurd claim there. But Hawaii?

Anyway, I think Putin is smart enough to know the suggestion he take back Alaska is a stupid one. But it's interesting that one of his associates should make such idle dreams public. Russia can pummel a nation like Ukraine, sacrificing its own youth to do so. But on the international scale, sans nukes, Russia is militarily a feeble mouse -- thanks to Pooty-Poot.

(And, yes, the "nukes" thing is very concerning.)

[BumRushDaShow]

7. I think some of this

is to mock 45 and his insistence on "taking over" Canada, Greenland, and Panama.

[GB_RN]

9. Not The First Time An Idiot There...

Has made this statement. Probably the exact same asshole, I’d bet.

[BumRushDaShow]

12. We have a whole lunatic party of ones like that

[Polybius]

15. "also mentioned California in his spiel about recapturing Russian territory"

When was Cali Russian territory?

[BadgerMom]

38. There was a Russian fur trading fort-Fort Ross-north of San Francisco.

Fort Ross is still there as a California State Historic Park. It was occupied as a settlement from 1812-1842. The fort was the southernmost Russian outpost on the west coast of North America. My guess is the tsar might not have abandoned it if it had remained active until 1849 and the discovery of gold in the Sierra.

As far as a claim goes, I’m reminded of how my dog claims various bushes every time he takes a walk. Thirty years is nothing. Putin can pound sand. What an asshole.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/p/AF1QipMOyX-ILCKPz70grm4xA8qSgJMJOtOu3zf_5MIz=s831-w831-h624-n-k-no

https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=449

[DickKessler]

42. Yep. And also, the Russian River in Mendocino and Sonoma Counties.

[ck4829]

50. Right?

[GB_RN]

8. Yeah. No.

We paid Russia for it. Not giving it back and you assholes can’t afford to buy it back.

You want it? Come and take it. See what happens. Of course, that assumes your troop transport ships will even float once loaded. Based on what I’m seeing of Russian military equipment involved in the War in Ukraine, I’m betting none of them are seaworthy. I’d also bet transport planes aren’t much better off, and I’m pretty sure most of your nukes would blow up in their silos.

(The Russians have never put much emphasis on routine maintenance like Western militaries do. A lot of their ships aren’t much better than garbage scows, as put by someone I know.)

The second most powerful army in Ukraine is a paper tiger.

[SergeStorms]

33. And he'd need.....

some troops to put aboard those troop transport ships. He's running out of those very quickly as well. The few who aren't killed or who defect to the Ukrainians are damned tired of fighting Putin's stupid ego-driven wars.

[RVN VET71]

46. Russia has become the real Mouse that Roared but with nukes

[Bengus81]

10. Hmmm....Palin could shoot at those attacking commies from a helo or snowmachine

[bronxiteforever]

11. I wish some reporter would ask TFG

what would be his sale price?

[The Madcap]

13. How does one say

"Fox News" in Russian? Solovyev would be working for them if he were American. He's a blathering fool.

[GiqueCee]

18. Putin is clinically insane...

... and is determined to rule the world. The entire planet is in mortal danger as long as this putrid little man fouls it with his continued existence.

[Dan]

20. And we must add, his fart Trump in the mix.

[Dan]

19. I have no doubt, that Trump would give Alaska to Russia for a face

Saving deal (for Trump) in Ukraine.

Failing that, I think Trump’s first term asking price was $10B.

[AZ8theist]

21. SOLOVYOV IS DELUTIONAL

The ridiculous things this psychopath has said on Russian TV is so over the top, not only can he not be taken seriously, one has to question his sanity.
Not only has he talked about "nuking" just about every Western capital, he claimed it would be the same as Sodom and Gomorrah.

His drooling blitherisms are increasingly unhinged:
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Vladimir_Solovyov

He's the "Baghdad Bob" of Russia

[joanbarnes]

22. I always thought it should be part of Canada.

[brush]

27. Why? Russia sold it to the US back in the 19th Century.

It was called Seward's Folly at the time, 1867. The price was 7.2 million greenbacks. Sec'y Seward was ridiculed but he certainly has the last and huge laugh now as Alaska is worth thousands of times more withall of it's size and resources...and of course it's modern infrastructure that has been developed.

I doubt neither Russia of Canada can afford to buy it now.

[LiberalFighter]

23. Will Trump sell Alaska to Putin and keep the money for himself?

[AKwannabe]

25. In his DREAMS!

[LetMyPeopleVote]

29. Don't give trump any ideas

Putin spent a great deal to re-elect trump and trump will be looking as to how to repay his debt to Putin

[uncledad]

30. How about we keep Alaska

And give them Texas and Florida?

[bdamomma]

31. Two words

eff off.

[Seinan Sensei]

34. Oh, and by the way ...

... France wants Louisiana back

[Iggo]

35. How 'bout No.

[Figarosmom]

36. I was waiting for this

Will tsf do it?

[Iggo]

40. I haven't googled it yet, but I'm pretty sure a President can't just give away a whole state.

[Figarosmom]

41. When there is no one

To enforce the laws are we sure he will bother with them?

I'm not so sure there are people that would stop him.

[heckles65]

37. The only good thing about the Andrew Johnson Administration

We got Russia off the continent.

Even if Alaska was completely uninhabitable and didn't have a dime's worth of resources, it was worth it.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

39. Time to post this again

[okaawhatever]

43. Come and get it, bitch. nt

[electric_blue68]

44. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA! And so forth!

[BlueKota]

45. Look what tsf started

Hey if this is the way they want it, tsf's incoming administration should start by returning all of North America back to the Native Americans.

[RazorbackExpat]

48. Dear Russia,

You accepted $7.2 million in American gold (equivalent to about a billion dollars today) to relieve yourself of a territory that you were unable to maintain. You legally gave up your claim to Alaska in 1867. Deal with it.

[Generic Other]

51. The stars on our flag

To dim one state at a time.

[Lovie777]

52. shithole owes Putin....

I would not be surprised.

[dchill]

53. "Give him whatever the hell he wants."

[FakeNoose]

57. Russia SOLD Alaska to us in 1867 - it was known as "Seward's Folly"

Wikipedia link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Purchase

Why would those assholes ever think they could take it back now?