Free Republic

Plans for an ambitious 12,400-mile superhighway linking the Atlantic and the Pacific are reportedly being considered by Russian authorities. The Trans-Eurasian Belt Development would see the construction of a vast motorway across Russia. It would connect with existing networks in Europe, making road trips to eastern Russia a far easier proposition. While roads do currently run across most of Russia, the quality tends to deteriorate the farther you travel from Moscow. The proposal, outlined in the Siberian Times, would see the road follow a similar route to the Trans-Siberian railway, through cities including Yekaterinburg, Irkutsk, and Vladivostok. A new high-speed...

Russian lawmaker Sergei Mironov suggested in a Wednesday post to X, the platform previously known as Twitter, that the oversight and power of the U.S. is weakening, citing the recent attempts by Venezuela to seize lands controlled by its neighbor, Guyana. The politician suggested that other nations should consider retaking old territories that are now part of the U.S., citing the examples of Mexico and Texas, and Russia and Alaska.

New edict affects all of Moscow's historic holdings across three continents, including former imperial colonies in the US. Russia has laid the groundwork for expanding its soft power across North America and Asia with a new decree Vladimir Putin signed last week. The new order provides funds to search, register and provide legal protection to Russian properties abroad – including land and buildings located in former Russian Empire and Soviet Union territories. Among the areas affected by the new decree is Alaska, which was sold to the United States in 1867 and still hosts communities with close links to Russia....

Russian State TV recently broadcasted a segment of a talk show during which the hosts discussed the potential of Alaska joining Russia. In the show, the host makes a joke saying: "Do you know what they call Alaska? Ice Crimea." He then adds that Alaska will "one day return to its native shores." The hosts are referencing the fact that Alaska once "belonged" to Russia, before being sold to the United States in 1866. This echoes rhetoric used in the war in Ukraine, that Ukraine "belonged" to Russia, and therefore should rejoin its so-called native land.

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. -snip- During the recent program, Solovyov said Finland, Warsaw, the Baltics, Moldova, and Alaska should be "returned to the Russian Empire." "Do you think I'm joking when I mention Finland, Warsaw, the Baltics, Moldova? Everything returned to the Russian Empire. And Alaska too, while you're at it," Solovyov said in a translated video.

A Russian official this week threatened the US over the freezing of Russian assets, urging it to remember that Alaska was once part of Russia's territory. "Let America always remember: there is a part of its territory that is Russia — Alaska," Vyacheslav Volodin, a Putin ally and speaker of the Russian parliament's lower house, said on Wednesday, according to multiple media outlets. "When they attempt to appropriate our assets abroad, they should be aware that we also have something to claim back," Volodin added. In other hawkish comments made on Wednesday, Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy secretary of Russia's Security...

Billboards proclaiming "Alaska Is Ours!" have been spotted in Russia one day after a key ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested that the country could reclaim the territory that was sold to the U.S. in 1867. Multiple billboards bearing the slogan surprised residents in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk after being spotted on Thursday, according to Krasnoyarsk news agency NGS24. One day earlier, Putin ally and State Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin suggested that Russia could "take back" Alaska in retaliation for economic sanctions imposed on Russia following the country's invasion of Ukraine. While the billboards appeared just after an...

The speaker of Russia’s lower house of parliament threatened Wednesday to “claim back” Alaska if the United States froze or seized Russian assets as punishment for its invasion of Ukraine. “Let America always remember: there’s a piece of territory, Alaska,” Vyacheslav Volodin said at the last session of parliament, the State Duma, before it goes on summer break. “When they try to manage our resources abroad, let them think before they act that we, too, have something to take back,” Volodin said. He noted that deputy speaker Pyotr Tolstoy had proposed holding a referendum among Alaskans to join Russia.

A member of Russia's parliament called for reparations from the United States on Sunday -- including the return of historic settlements in Alaska and California -- over the west's vast economic sanctions. The Kremlin has been flooding the airwaves of its state-run channels with pro-war propaganda that paints a vastly different portrait to reality and shields the Russian people from the horrors of Vladimir Putin's bloody invasion of Ukraine, the Daily Beast first reported. Moscow's TV pundits and show hosts have also begun endorsing the idea of publicly hanging Ukrainians who are standing against Russia -- something the Kremlin has...

Chairman of the Russian State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin warned that Russia could demand Alaska back if the US continues to seize Russian resources abroad on Wednesday.

Russian parliament member Oleg Matveychev on a TV program addressed waves of sanctions against Russia in response to the country’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, saying leaders should “think about reparations.” “The harm these sanctions caused us cost money. Return of possessions, including possessions of the Russian Empire, Soviet Union and even parts of Russia that are now occupied by the United States,” Matveychev said on Sunday, according to the Anchorage Daily News. The host of the show asked Matveychev about the return of Alaska and Fort Ross, which was established by Russians in California, according to the California Department of...

A member of Russia's parliament called for reparations from the United States on Sunday -- including the return of historic settlements in Alaska and California -- over the west's vast economic sanctions. The Kremlin has been flooding the airwaves of its state-run channels with pro-war propaganda that paints a vastly different portrait to reality and shields the Russian people from the horrors of Vladimir Putin's bloody invasion of Ukraine, the Daily Beast first reported. Alaska and Fort Ross in California were part of the Russian empire in the 18th and 19th centuries before they were sold to the United States....

Ah, Alaska, America's 49th state and the Last Frontier. The home of salmon, gold, oil, and many kinds of wildlife. And a potential place of origin for World War III. In 1867, the Russian Tsar sold the territory of Russian America to the United States. The territory wasn't doing the Tsar much good, never really turning a profit, and proving to be an unnecessary thorn in the Empire's already strained relationship with the UK (which owned Canada), so the Russian government was open to any reasonable opportunity to offload it. Russia and the US being rather buddy-buddy in the 1850s...

An unnamed former senior military officer has apparently claimed all evidence shows Russian submarines will enter the US via the small village of Wasilla, in Alaska. According to the ex-Navy brass, the stretch of coastline is totally unprotected and would be ideal to stage an attack from. He said: “Our feeling in the Navy was that Obama had turned Alaska into a defenseless area that will serve as a forward base of operations when World War III begins. “We are the verge of being invaded from Alaska all the way down into Canada and eventually the Northwest.”

Why Did Russia Sell Us Alaska So Cheap?By John Steele Gordon The check, dated August 1, 1868, that was used to pay the purchase price for Alaska to Eduard de Stoeckl on behalf of the emperor of Russia. (National Archives) A hundred and forty years ago today, sovereignty over Alaska was transferred from the Russian Empire to the United States. The transfer completed the national territory on the North American continent. It was one of the great bargains of all time. For a price of $7.2 million, this country got 365 million acres of land and another 13 million of...

On this day in 1867, the U.S. formally takes possession of Alaska after purchasing the territory from Russia for $7.2 million, or less than two cents an acre. The Alaska purchase comprised 586,412 square miles, about twice the size of Texas, and was championed by William Henry Seward, the enthusiasticly expansionist secretary of state under President Andrew Johnson. Negotiations between Seward (1801-1872) and the Russian minister to the U.S., Eduard de Stoeckl, began in March 1867. However, the American public believed the land to be barren and worthless and dubbed the purchase “Seward’s Folly” and “Andrew Johnson’s Polar Bear Garden,”...