It was sold in 1867, but some Russians want Alaska back from the US
This bouncy, accordion-driven single ignored the disorienting collapse of the Soviet dictatorship and instead pointed listeners east, across the Bering Strait, to the 49th U.S. state, demanding:
'Give us our dear Alaska back/Give us our dear native land.'
Now the song, by rabble-rousing rockers Lyuba (the Loud Ones), has taken on new significance as President Donald Trump prepares to host Vladimir Putin at an Alaskan military base – and conspiracy theories resurface claiming Uncle Sam swindled Mother Russia out of the 665,000-square-mile Arctic jewel.
More: A 'chess game' that could fail: What Trump thinks could happen at Putin meeting
Russian America
Part theory, part wish, longstanding Alaska conspiracies gain prominence in Russia during times of conflict, when nationalists invoke perceived betrayals of the 19th century Russian and 20th century Soviet empires, said Andrei Znamenski, a history professor at the University of Memphis.
More: Trump-Putin summit spotlights Alaska's strategic importance, vulnerability
Such talk 'is amplified' now, amid the Ukraine war and the August 15 Trump-Putin summit, Znamensi told USA TODAY.
'It turns out that Russian America was not sold to the United States. The real events were completely different,' one Russian news outlet wrote recently, describing an alternative – and, historians say, false – account in which Russia's claimed dominion in Alaska was merely leased to the United States, with the lease long expired.
An 'act of spite'
The first permanent Russian settlement in Alaska was founded in 1784, and the state today still preserves a handful of Russian Orthodox churches. Some residents of the Aleutian Islands continue to practice a syncretic combination of Orthodox Christianity and shamanism, Znamenski said.
More: Trump threatens Russia with 'severe consequences,' teases Zelenskyy-Putin meeting
But after Russia's defeat at the hands of the British in the costly 1854-56 Crimean War, Tsar Nicholas II decided to cut his losses and relinquish the difficult-to-defend Alaska. Britain, which ruled Canada, was eyeing the rich territory, so Nicholas sold it for $7 million to a less bellicose bidder: The United States.
'It was an act of spite' against England, Znamenski said.
Nicholas hasn't been forgiven by nationalist writers, some of whom see him as the dupe of Masonic and Jewish conspiracies. One author, Ivan Mironov, wrote his 2007 book, 'A Fateful Deal: How Alaska was Sold,' while in jail for plotting the assassination of a reformist former deputy prime minister.
Paradise lost
Alaska and Crimea remain linked in some ways today, both viewed as historic Russian regions lost by weak leaders – Yeltsin, the first president of independent Russia, is reviled for recognizing Crimea as part of Ukraine after the USSR collapsed.
More: What's latest in Russian-Ukraine war? A closer look at the map ahead of Trump-Putin meet
In 2016, two years after Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine, a black granite memorial was raised in Sailors' Square of the Black Sea city of Yevpatoria with a command to future generations: "We returned Crimea, it's up to you to return Alaska."
'Siberia and Alaska, the two shores are the same,' Lyuba sang. 'Women, horses, thrills along the way.'
A music video for the song begins with an animated machine gun severing Alaska from the North American continent. (Lyuba's lead singer was later elected to the Russian parliament, or Duma, as a member of Putin's United Russia party.)
All or nothing
For most of the Russian nationalist intelligentsia, Alaska is less a jewel to be recovered than a warning against any concession to the West. Alexander Dugin, a leading intellectual of Russia's 'Eurasianist' far right who's closely tied to Putin, has often raised the Alaska example.
Dugin, whose adult daughter was killed in a 2022 car bombing blamed on Ukraine's secret service – for which he was the presumed target – was deadly serious in discussing the stakes of the Alaska summit in a recent article.
'Putin has repeatedly admitted that the West never keeps its word, constantly deceives and distorts, and to trust its leaders in any way is impossible under any circumstances,' he wrote August 13 in the Russian-language newsweekly Stolista-S.
'For Trump, it is a deal, for us fate,' Dugin said. 'Ukraine will either be ours or nothing at all.'
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: It was sold in 1867, but some Russians want Alaska back from the U.S.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Los Angeles Times
2 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
Texas shows how Trump's anti-green moves threaten a red economy
Deep-red Texas needs to build power plants at an astonishing speed and scale to keep its economy humming. President Donald Trump just made that much harder. So many data centers, crypto-mining operations and factories are planned for the Lone Star State that its peak electricity demand is poised to surge in the next five years — perhaps even double. The vast majority of new power capacity planned there would utilize the sun, the wind or batteries. But Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill kills tax credits for renewable projects starting in 2028, making them more expensive to build. Other states face the same problem, as power demand nationwide is expected to soar after decades of minimal growth. But it's particularly acute in Texas, which has been rapidly adding renewable energy while it struggles to build gas-burning power plants. The state's bustling economy will be threatened if it can't add more electricity. Texas' gross domestic product jumped 51% from 2020 through 2024 — compared to 37% for the country as a whole — fueled by cheap power. 'We're in an energy crunch,' said Joshua Rhodes, an electricity expert and research scientist at the University of Texas at Austin. 'We should be doubling down on everything we can build right now. Making things more expensive is antithetical to that.' Clean power is expected to continue growing across the US, despite Trump's tax and spending bill. But the legislation will cut the amount installed. BloombergNEF, for example, forecasts that annual deployment of new solar, wind and energy storage facilities in 2035 will be 23% lower than it would have been without the bill. Oil and gas get most of the attention, but green energy has been the Texas economic boom's secret ingredient. All but 6% of new electric capacity added to the state's grid since 2020 has come from renewables or batteries. With vast, windswept plains, Texas has long been the top market for wind power. Solar surged as panel prices declined almost 50% in the past five years. It certainly helps that renewables are fast and relatively easy to install, compared to fossil fuel power plants that take years to build. Texas now has more clean energy and storage systems than any other state, supplying more than 30% of its electricity. Texas enjoys relatively low electricity prices — which have become a magnet for energy-hungry facilities like data centers. The state's power grid manager, known as Ercot, forecasts peak demand to approach 150 gigawatts by 2030, up from a record of 85.5 gigawatts in 2023. Transmission service providers, including utility companies, say demand could get even higher, topping 200 gigawatts in 2030. For a sense of scale, a gigawatt is the output of one commercial nuclear reactor and can power about 200,000 Texas homes. The state now has about 178 gigawatts of installed generating or storage capacity, but not all of that electricity is available at any given moment. Gas and coal plants need to be taken offline for maintenance, batteries must recharge after use, and the output of solar and wind facilities varies with the weather and time of day. There always needs to be a comfortable cushion between installed capacity and actual demand. Texas' grid is largely cut off from the rest of the country, so meeting expected demand growth will require adding lots of generation within the state — quickly. The state's clean-energy boom had been expected to continue. But with Trump's budget bill, wind and solar projects that go into service after the start of 2028 will no longer qualify for key federal incentives, unless they begin construction by July 5, 2026. Less-profitable projects will likely be cancelled. A White House spokesman said that depending on 'unreliable energy sources' could lead to reliability issues. The new policies will prompt developers to focus instead on domestically produced coal, gas and nuclear energy, Deputy Press Secretary Harrison Fields said in an emailed statement. Led by Republican Governor Greg Abbott, Texas officials have tried to encourage construction of power plants burning natural gas. They've even set aside $5 billion of public money to offer gas plant developers low-interest loans. But projects keep dropping out of the loan program due to cost uncertainties and problems procuring equipment. Indeed, there's currently a global manufacturing shortage of the turbines used in gas-fired plants, with a five-year backlog for new orders. Anyone planning a new gas plant faces a long wait for the gear. A spokeswoman for Ercot said the state continues to see new power-generating projects being proposed to address growing demand. But any obstacle to new supplies poses a threat to the Texas economy, which would be the world's eighth-largest if the state were considered as a country. Curtailing renewables would mean less electricity added to the grid. The renewable plants that do get built will cost more than before the One Big Beautiful Bill, driving up prices. Residential ratepayers in Texas could pay about 23% more in 2035 than they would have if the bill hadn't upended the market, while industrial customers could see bills surge 54%, according to Energy Innovation Policy & Technology, an energy and climate think tank. Higher utility bills for consumers will mean less money to spend elsewhere every month. 'We will severely restrict economic growth,' said Doug Lewin, a Texas energy expert and president of Stoic Energy Consulting. 'Because we can't grow without energy.' Wade, Malik and Sanchez write for Bloomberg. Mark Chediak and Jennifer A. Dlouhy contributed.
Politico
3 minutes ago
- Politico
Playbook PM: Why neither party can bank on Latino voters
Presented by THE CATCH-UP Texas Republicans are set to pass their new congressional maps through the state House today, officially putting their stamp on the redistricting arms race that has unfolded as national Republicans push to retain control of the House in next year's midterms. The Republican-led gambit to redistrict — which is being met with similar efforts across other states and notable retaliation in California — rests on a significant gamble banking on the emerging realignment of many working-class Latino voters toward the GOP. But over a year out from the 2026 elections, there's an emerging reality operatives say are slapping both parties in the face: President Donald Trump's approval numbers with Latino voters are souring — and those same voters still don't trust Democrats. The numbers: Trump came in with a net 27-percent approval among Latinos in the Pew Research Center's August survey. The Economist/YouGov poll put him at 28 percent. Reuters/Ipsos' latest numbers published Monday gave Trump 32 percent, which matches his lowest approval in their survey. But the resounding warning signs are in Latino-run Equis Research's latest polling memo released this week, which went beyond just Trump's favorability, and offer lessons for Republicans and Democrats. With Republicans' razor-thin majority in the House and the possibility of entirely new, Hispanic-majority districts defining the next elections, the flagging figures are worth paying attention to on both sides of the aisle, multiple Democratic and Republican strategists told Playbook. With Latinos, both parties are in the wilderness. 'This confirms what we've been seeing over and over again,' Chuck Rocha, a Democratic strategist, told Playbook. 'Some Latinos having regrets voting for Trump — but also still not sure that the Democrats are the answer.' Pocket-checking: One of the most striking statistics from Equis' research shows 56 percent of Latino men now disapprove of Trump — the same coalition that swung for Trump last year. And pocketbook issues rank among the top reasons why. 'The cost of living was by far Trump's weakest area,' Maria di Franco Quiñonez, a research director at Equis, told Playbook. 'It's really extended to the Republican Party as a whole.' That should be especially concerning when it comes to redistricting, Republican strategist Mike Madrid told Playbook. 'That is who they're banking on with this new carved out map in Texas. That's madness.' But this doesn't mean Latinos are now flocking to Democrats, di Franco Quiñonez said. Latino voters are split down the middle on Democrats in the most competitive House districts, 47 percent favorability to 48 percent. And a majority don't see Democrats mounting an effective opposition. 'They have not been able to stop that bleeding,' one high-level Republican operative granted anonymity to discuss strategy told Playbook. 'There's no pushback to Trump, there's no leader in the Democratic Party, they don't know who that is.' Republicans also know they're playing on what was once Democratic turf, the GOP operative said. Even with fluctuations in Trump's approval — Equis found that 8 percent of Latino voters regretted voting for Trump and 19 percent are disappointed with his actions as president — these aren't the same numbers as 2018, when voters snapped back toward Democrats, they argue. The operative pointed to Equis' polling showing 70 percent of Latinos that voted for Trump are happy with their choice. 'I read that and I'm like, that's great,' they said. 'We're feeling good about where we are.' When it comes to this swing group, there's always been a swath of Latinos — Miami's Cubans, for example — that have been historically conservative. It's the portion of Latinos that are somewhere on the fence (Equis reported 16 percent undecided) that have the power to flip the House next year, Rocha told Playbook. 'We're never gonna get all of them back, but we can get back 10 to 20 percent of them and realign this to what it used to be, because the data shows they're not happy with Republicans,' Rocha said. As the numbers continue to trend downward for Republicans and Democrats face a significant voter registration problem, per new reporting from NYT's Shane Goldmacher and Jonah Smith, this has to be a wake-up call for both parties, Madrid told Playbook. 'We're witnessing two parties in significant transition here, and they're both operating off of false assumptions, and neither is completely sure or confident in what their future coalition will be, but they know that their old coalition does not work for them,' Madrid said. Good Wednesday afternoon. Thanks for reading Playbook PM. Are you a campaign strategist with thoughts on Latino voters? Slide into my inbox at abianco@ 9 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW 1. WAR AND PEACE: Russia wants to be involved in negotiations over security guarantees for Ukraine, with new comments from Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov undercutting 'hopes that any progress has been made' toward ending the war in Ukraine, POLITICO's Ketrin Jochecová reports. Lavrov floated the prospect of China joining security discussions, signaling that Russia has not 'softened on its maximalist positions on Ukraine.' But many European leaders haven't been convinced Putin wants to reach a peace deal — they just want to humor Trump until he decides to punish Russia, POLITICO's Gabriel Gavin and colleagues report. The latest on the guarantees: Kyiv's allies in the 'coalition of the willing' met today to form a plan to commit British and French troops to protect Ukraine in a peace deal, with 10 countries saying they would provide military backup, Bloomberg's Ellen Milligan and colleagues write. But the specifics of any U.S. support remain unclear. 2. THE CRISIS IN GAZA: Trump in an interview yesterday effusively praised Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu for launching airstrikes against Iran, per NYT's Matthew Mpoke Bigg. 'He's a war hero, because we work together. He's a war hero,' Trump said, adding: 'I guess I am too.' The comments come as the Israeli military announced today that it's arming 60,000 reserve troops to carry out its new ground operation in Gaza City, WSJ's Anat Peled reports. Israel is moving forward with its plans to take the center of Gaza even as Netanyahu weighs a ceasefire proposal that Hamas has said it would accept, NYT's Lara Jakes writes. Survey says: A majority of Americans believe that every country in the United Nations should recognize Palestinian statehood, with the latest Reuters/Ipsos polling putting 58 percent in favor and 33 percent not in favor. 3. FED UP: 'Trump Considers Firing Fed Official After Accusation of Mortgage Fraud,' by WSJ's Matt Grossman and Brian Schwartz: 'Trump has told aides he is considering attempting to fire a Biden-appointed Federal Reserve governor after one of his housing officials accused her of mortgage fraud … Trump wrote in a social-media post in response to [Bill] Pulte's claims that '[Lisa] Cook must resign, now!!!' Behind the scenes, Trump is considering going further. If she doesn't resign, Trump is discussing trying to fire her for cause … Pulte's post alleges that in 2021 Cook sought mortgages on two properties — one in Michigan, the other in Atlanta — and described both of them as her primary residence in papers submitted 14 days apart.' 4. CAPITAL PUNISHMENT: A new Washington Post-Schar School poll shows that D.C. residents oppose Trump's takeover of the D.C. police, and 65 percent don't believe the operation will make the city safer. About 8 in 10 oppose Trump's executive order to federalize law enforcement. More from WaPo New incentives: The U.S. Marshals Service announced that it will be offering cash for tips that lead to arrests in D.C. as a part of Trump's crime crackdown, WaPo's Martin Weil reports. 'The post gives no details about the reward program, or the matters about which tips were sought. But it links to a marshals service website that provides information that seems to limit the types of matters involved to traditional concerns of the marshals.' 5. TRADING PLACES: Canada and Mexico are looking for new ways to expand their trade together without the U.S. serving as a middleman, as Trump's tariffs provide a 'chance to reset the relationship and compare notes,' NYT's Emiliano Rodríguez Mega and Ian Austen write. It's unclear how long it will last. … Azerbaijan is looking to expand its relationship with the U.S. with new economic and technology ties, after the Trump administration helped broker a peace deal with neighboring Armenia, Axios' Colin Demarest reports. … Meanwhile, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde is pushing European countries to look beyond the U.S. and work toward their own economic resilience, WSJ's Ed Frankl reports. Trump's trade winners: Puerto Rico, as the 'America First' tariffs boost manufacturing on the island, Bloomberg's Jim Wyss reports. 'We have multiple companies choosing Puerto Rico because we are American manufacturing, we are made in the USA, and that automatically liberates them from tariffs,' Gov. Jenniffer González-Colón said. Trump's trade losers: Sony announced today that it will hike the price of its PlayStation 5 console in the U.S., the latest video game giant to raise its prices amid Trump's trade war, POLITICO's Gregory Svirnovskiy writes. 'Similar to many global businesses, we continue to navigate a challenging economic environment,' a Sony exec said in a press statement today. 6. LIFE AT THE CDC: 'CDC Employees Return to Work With Bullet Holes Still in the Windows,' by NOTUS' Margaret Manto: 'Centers for Disease Control and Prevention employees returning to the office more than a week after a gunman shot about 500 bullets at the Atlanta headquarters are finding remnants of a crime scene. A CDC employee sent NOTUS photographs of windows still pockmarked with bullet holes on Monday afternoon. Handwritten signs taped to chairs warned employees to avoid glass on the carpet. ''I was thinking they would have at least enhanced security going into campus and/or in buildings, but it seems oddly the same as usual,' the CDC employee told NOTUS via text. A CDC spokesperson said in an email to NOTUS that the agency is 'working closely with [the Georgia Bureau of Investigation] on a security assessment of the facilities to ensure the safety, security and wellbeing of staff for when they return to campus.'' 7. K STREET FILES: White House principal deputy press secretary Harrison Fields is exiting the administration to join CGCN, the GOP-aligned lobbying and public affairs firm, Axios' Alex Thompson reports. The departure of Fields, a Trump 1.0 alum and 'one of the most senior Black men on the president's team,' comes a day after Trent Morse became the first senior White House official to decamp for K Street to launch his own lobbying shop, as POLITICO's Caitlin Oprysko scooped. Though he's subject to a one-year cooling off period during which he's barred from lobbying the West Wing directly or representing any foreign entities, Morse is free to lobby the rest of the executive branch or advise others lobbying the White House. 8. THE COST OF LIVING: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's 'unusually large personal security requirements' are causing a strain across the 'Army agency tasked with protecting him as it pulls agents from criminal investigations to safeguard family residences in Minnesota, Tennessee and D.C.,' WaPo's Tara Copp and colleagues report. The 'sprawling, multimillion-dollar initiative' is pushing the Criminal Investigation Division 'to staff weeks-long assignments in each location and at times monitor residences belonging to the Hegseths' former spouses.' A CID official said Hegseth's staffing is 'unlike any other in the agency's recent history. 'I've never seen this many security teams for one guy,' the official said. 'Nobody has.'' 9. ON DEFENSE: 'The US Navy is building a drone fleet to take on China. It's not going well,' by Reuters' David Jeans: 'During a U.S. naval test off the California coast last month, which was designed to showcase the Pentagon's top autonomous drone boats, one vessel stalled unexpectedly. … another drone vessel smashed into the idling boat's starboard side, vaulted over the deck, and crashed back into the water … The previously unreported episode, which involved two vessels built by U.S. defense tech rivals Saronic and BlackSea Technologies, is one of a series of recent setbacks in the Pentagon's push to build a fleet of autonomous vessels.' TALK OF THE TOWN Ari Shapiro, host of 'All Things Considered,' is leaving NPR at the end of September. Graham Platner, the Maine oyster farmer challenging Susan Collins, apparently has 'very dynamic' oysters, the Midcoast Villager found out. POLITICO MOVES — Katie Locke has moved into the newly created role of supervising editor of POLITICO's Central Editing Desk. She most recently served as a newsletter editor. Stacey Dec and Nadia Wynter have also joined as newsletter editors. Dec previously was a digital news editor at ABC News. Wynter comes to POLITICO from Slack, where she launched the company's copy desk. TRANSITIONS — Hampton Dellinger is now a partner in the litigation department at Foley Hoag. He previously was U.S. special counsel and is a former assistant AG at the Justice Department. … Natalie Turner is joining Rep. Juan Ciscomani's (R-Ariz.) office as comms director. She most recently was a public affairs specialist at the Kansas Bureau of Investigation and is a Roger Marshall alum. … Michael Marinaccio is heading up a new tech advocacy group, the Center for Responsible Technology. He previously was CEO of Magnitude Consulting. … Rachel Shekell is now manager of government affairs and policy at Mastercard. She most recently was a public policy specialist at Plaid. … Mary Lou Akai-Ferguson is now executive director of the Asian American Power Network. She previously was organizer and strategist at Akai Strategies. Send Playbookers tips to playbook@ or text us on Signal here. Playbook couldn't happen without our editor Zack Stanton, deputy editor Garrett Ross and Playbook Podcast producer Callan Tansill-Suddath.
Time Magazine
3 minutes ago
- Time Magazine
1 in 30 U.S. Teens Identify as Transgender
Nearly 3 million Americans identify as transgender, including one in 30 of those aged 13 to 17, according to a new report. But data on the country's trans community may soon be hard to come by, its authors warned, as the Trump Administration and a number of GOP-led states seek to limit the recognition, and rights, of transgender people. The UCLA Williams Institute has been publishing reports about transgender Americans since 2011, tracking information such as the race, ethnicity, age, regional location, and mental health of transgender individuals. Trans adults and youth make up 1% of Americans aged 13 and older and 3.3% of 13-to 17-year-olds, according to the institute's Wednesday report. Researchers found that younger adults, those aged 18 to 34, were more likely to identify as transgender than their older counterparts, making up more than 50% of the country's transgender population. For its initial 2011 report, the institute relied on just two state-level population surveys. Researchers noted that they have since been able to access broader and higher-quality data through the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): To generate the most recent findings, they used data from the CDC 2021-2023 Behavior Risk Factor Surveillance System and 2021 and 2023 Youth Risk Behavior Survey. The report authors noted that the Youth Risk Behavior Survey in particular 'currently provides the best available data for our estimates of the size and characteristics of youth who identify as transgender in the U.S.' But the agency will no longer collect information on transgender people in compliance with President Donald Trump's Executive Order calling for federal recognition of only two biological sexes. Since Trump returned to office in January, information regarding trans people and health resources for LGBTQ+ people has been quietly removed or modified on federal websites. And the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has stepped away from its previous practice of supporting gender-affirming-care, in spite of numerous statements from all major medical associations in the U.S., including the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, declaring the care as best practice. In May, HHS called for 'exploratory therapy' or psychotherapy to treat individuals with gender dysphoria instead of the medically recommended care. Multiple states have also sought to restrict access to gender-affirming care, particularly for minors, amid broader global efforts to target such care for trans youth. A June Supreme Court decision upholding a Tennessee state-level ban on gender-affirming-care for youth delivered a heavy blow to the U.S. LGBTQ+ community, permitting similar bans that have been enacted across the country and presenting a significant obstacle to future efforts to challenge restrictions in the courts. Amid the current political climate, the authors of Wednesday's Williams Institute report say they are unsure whether survey respondents will accurately respond to questions regarding their gender identity moving forward. In addition to the uncertain future of data on the U.S. transgender population, they wrote, 'It is also unclear whether individuals' willingness to disclose on surveys that they identify as transgender will remain unchanged in the years to come.' Despite those looming challenges in gathering information, however, the authors noted it is already clear that younger people are more likely to identify as transgender and they anticipate that to continue being true. 'This has implications for institutions in our society, including educational institutions, the U.S. Armed Forces, civilian workplaces, health care settings, and other areas, regarding how to meet the needs of and provide opportunities for current youth and future generations,' they said.
