Way back in 1867, the U.S. bought Alaska from Russia.
William H. Seward, then-Secretary of State, negotiated the purchase from Russia’s ruler Tsar Alexander II, the Emperor of the Russian Empire, King of Poland, and Grand Duke of Finland. The price: $7.2 million, which would be more than $138 million in today’s dollars, according to one inflation calculator.
But now apparently a prominent Russian politician wants Alaska back.
Parliament member Oleg Matveychev, who often speaks on behalf of the Kremlin, dropped the idea during an appearance on Russian state TV, according to the Daily Mail.
Matveychev called for “the return of all Russian properties, those of the Russian empire, the Soviet Union and current Russia, which has been seized in the United States, and so on.” The show’s host asked if that specifically meant Alaska and the former Russian settlement of Fort Ross, California.
“That was my next point. As well as the Antarctic,” Matveychev said. “We discovered it, so it belongs to us.”
Fort Ross, California, is “a small area in Sonoma County that was at one point the Russian Empire’s southernmost outpost in North America and was sold off in 1841,” the New York Post reported.
The Republican governor of Alaska laughed of the Russian’s desire.
“Good luck with that! Not if we have something to say about it,” Mike Dunleavy wrote on Twitter. “We have hundreds of thousands of armed Alaskans and military members that will see it differently.”
But the Russian lawmaker went further.
“We should be thinking about reparations from the damage that was caused by the sanctions and the war itself, because that too costs money and we should get it back,” Matveychev said.
And Matveychev made more wild claims, saying he wants “the return of all medals that have been unlawfully taken from our sportsmen during all Olympic games,” according to the Daily Beast.
In the face of devastating U.S. economic sanctions levied against Russia, the Kremlin issued its own sanctions against U.S. officials. In addition to Biden, Russia’s sanctions list includes U.S. officials such as Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Mark Milley and Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo.
The president’s son Hunter Biden and former senator and former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton were also on the list.
“Earlier on Sunday Matveychev appeared to set the stage for persecuting Ukrainians who are resisting Russia’s invasion,” the Mail reported. “After a clip of Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, Matveychev blasted the U.S.: ‘There isn’t a single country in the world that is as easily manipulated as America.'”
“‘Here’s what will be on the table after our victory… we’re going to raise the stakes,’ he promised. Matveychev began his list with ‘the dissolution of NATO,’ adding that ‘the presence of NATO in some countries is getting in our way,'” the Mail said.
He also demanded “extradition of all war criminals,” including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, former President Petro Poroshenko, and former deputy minister at the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs Anton Herashchenko.
Joseph Curl has covered politics for 35 years, including 12 years as White House correspondent, and ran the Drudge Report from 2010 to 2015. Send tips to [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @josephcurl.