If some Russian officials had their way, Sarah Palin could someday actually see Russia from her house. Why stop at restoring the Soviet Union? Why not restore the Russian Empire to its former glory? After all, Putin has compared himself to Peter the Great, the tsar who expanded the Russian Empire.
In 1725, Peter ordered navigator Vitus Bering to explore the North Pacific for potential colonization opportunities. Under Catherine the Great, Russia established its first permanent settlement in Alaska in 1784, a year after annexing the Crimean Khanate. And now Russian officials are incensed after Canada and some other Western countries indicated that they were ready to go along with a proposal by Ukrainian leaders to use seized Russian assets to help pay the estimated $750 billion bill to rebuild Ukraine.
On Wednesday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that they were working on a "legal framework" that would allow the EU members to use assets from Russia and Russian oligarchs for Ukraine's restoration. "I think it is a matter of justice to consider this issue," she said.
That didn’t sit well with Russia’s lower house speaker, Vyacheslav Volodin, a Putin ally. He warned on Wednesday that Washington should remember, before freezing or seizing Russian assets, that Alaska previously belonged to Russia.
Ukrainskaya Pravda, citing a report from the pro-Russian publication RBC, quoted Volodin, the State Duma speaker, as saying:
"Let America always remember: there is a part of its (Russia's) territory there – Alaska. So when they start trying to dispose of our resources abroad, before doing so, they should think about the fact that we have something to reclaim too …
We do not interfere in their internal affairs, and they have been saying for decades that everything that is happening to them, the elections of all their presidents, is because of Russia's interference. That's not how you respect your presidents. Well, what do you say? One of them was bad, now the other is falling off the bike. Well, here we are again."
State Duma Vice Speaker Pyotr Tolstoy proposed holding a referendum in Alaska, according to RBC. And in case you’re wondering, this Putin propagandist is the great-great-grandson of War and Peace author Leo Tolstoy.
But Alaskans shouldn’t lose any sleep over Volodin’s crazed threats. Russian forces, currently bogged down in Ukraine’s Donbas region, aren’t going to be assaulting Juneau anytime soon.
Steven Pifer, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, had this to say about Volodin: “This is not a serious person.”
In a deal ridiculed at the time as “Seward’s Folly,” Secretary of State William Seward reached an agreement with Russia in 1867 to purchase Alaska for $7.2 million.
But now Russia apparently has seller's remorse.
Back in March, when another Russian lawmaker suggested that Russia wants Alaska back as reparations for U.S. sanctions, Alaska’s Gov. Mike Dunleavy tweeted: “Good luck with that! Not if we have something to say about it. We have hundreds of thousands of armed Alaskans and military members that will see it differently.”