A Russian state TV presenter has said that Alaska belongs to Russia, reviving an effort pushed by propagandists throughout the war in Ukraine that Moscow could seize the U.S. state.
During a broadcast of the Russia-1 program 60 Minutes, propagandist Olga Skabeyeva referred to the U.S. state as “our Alaska”, Agentstvo, an investigative Russian site, reported on Sunday.
Alaska once belonged to Russia. In 1867, it was sold to the U.S. 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.
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Skabeyeva made the remarks after fellow pundit Adalbi Shkhagoshev, a deputy of Russia’s Parliament, the State Duma, commented on a joint patrol staged by Russia and China last week that came within 200 miles of the Alaskan coast.
Russian Tu-95MS and Chinese H-6K strategic bombers, alongside escorting Russian Su-30SM and Su-35S jets, operated together over the north Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea. It marked the first time the two countries had been intercepted while operating together.
“Our aircraft approached the borders of Alaska,” Shkhagoshev said of the joint patrol, before he was interrupted by Skabeyeva, who incorrectly said that the State Duma deputy had said “our Alaska.”
She added: “Right now the head of the Pentagon is hiccupping nervously somewhere. You said ‘our Alaska’, and he just said that if Russian and Chinese planes penetrate the territory that the U.S. considers its own, the U.S. is ready to enter the war.”
State TV propagandists, including Skabeyeva, have often floated the idea of either striking or seizing the territory of NATO members during Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Moscow has accused the West of being complicit in the war by providing Kyiv with military aid, weapons, and equipment to fend off Russian forces. Newsweek has contacted Russia’s Foreign Ministry for comment by email.
In January, the U.S. State Department responded to a Kremlin decree following claims that Putin gave Russia grounds to reclaim Alaska.
The Kremlin signed a decree regarding historic Russian real estate holdings abroad, directing and funding the presidential administration and the foreign ministry in “searching for real estate in the Russian Federation, the former Russian Empire, the former USSR,” then referring to the “proper registration of rights… and legal protection of this property,” Newsweek previously reported.
The U.S. State Department dismissed speculation that Putin could seek to seize Alaska.
“I speak for all of us in the U.S. government to say that, certainly, he is not getting it back,” State Department principal deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said on January 22.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.