A Russian state television presenter has said that Alaska is part of Russia, reviving a claim made by propagandists during the war in Ukraine that Moscow could take over the US state.
In a program on Russian broadcaster Rusi-1 called 60 Minutes, propagandist Olga Skabeyeva described the US state as “our Alaska,” Russian news site Agentstvo reported on Sunday.
Alaska was once part of Russia. In 1867, it was sold to the United States after the signing of the Alaska Treaty by then-president Andrew Johnson. It received federal status on January 3, 1959. Alaska and Russia are about 53 miles apart at their closest point.
Skabeyeva made the comments after her colleague Adalbi Shkhagoshev, a member of Russia’s State Duma parliament, commented on a joint Russian-Chinese patrol last week that took place 200 miles off the coast of Alaska.
Russian Tu-95MS and Chinese H-6K bombers flew alongside Russian Su-30SM and Su-35S jets over the North Pacific and Bering Sea. It was the first time that the two countries were captured during joint operations.
“Our plane approached the borders of Alaska,” Shkhagoshev said of the joint patrol before being interrupted by Skabeyeva, who falsely claimed the State Duma deputy had said “our Alaska.”
She added: “At this moment, somewhere, the head of the Pentagon is swallowing nervously. You said ‘our Alaska’ and he simply said that the US is ready to go to war if Russian and Chinese aircraft enter territory that the US considers its own.”
State television propagandists, including Skabeyeva, have often floated the idea of either attacking or invading the territory of NATO members in the event of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Moscow has accused the West of getting involved in the war because it is providing Kiev with military aid, weapons and equipment to fend off Russian forces. Newsweek emailed the Russian Foreign Ministry for comment.
In January, the US State Department responded to a Kremlin decree alleging that Putin had given Russia reason to reclaim Alaska.
The Kremlin signed a decree on Russian historical real estate abroad, instructing and funding the Presidential Administration and the Foreign Ministry “to search for real estate in the Russian Federation, the former Russian Empire and the former USSR,” and then referred to ” proper registration of rights… and legal protection of that property,” as Newsweek previously reported.
“I speak for everyone in the U.S. government when I say he’s certainly not going to bring it back,” State Department Deputy Chief Spokesman Vedant Patel said on January 22./newsweek.com
