Trump and Putin may get a cold reception from some Alaskans

Boston Globe

14 hours ago

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'Alaska boosters have been pushing for Alaska as an international gateway for basically since statehood,' said Ramseur, who wrote the book 'Melting the Ice Curtain: The Extraordinary Story of Citizen Diplomacy on the Russia-Alaska Frontier.' 'So in that sense, it's good for Alaska. Puts us on the map for a couple of hours.'
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Alaska has deep ties to Russian history and culture, dating back to when the Russian Empire first colonized the region in the 18th century. Since the United States purchased the land in 1867, Russian-speaking communities have stayed in the state, and Russian Orthodox Churches, with their distinct onion-shaped domes, can be found from the remote Aleutian Islands to Anchorage, Alaska's largest city.
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'Russian culture and Russian history is sort of baked into Alaska,' said Brandon Boylan, a professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks who has researched Alaska's role in US-Russia relations. 'There's a lot of remnants of the Russian American legacy.'
After the end of the Cold War — when Alaska served as a front line of missile defense against the Soviet Union — the state became the center of efforts to deepen ties between the United States and the new Russian Federation, Boylan said. But the outbreak of war in Ukraine reversed that thaw in relations, he said.
While remarks by Russian political figures about taking back their former American territory have largely 'fallen flat,' the war in Ukraine has still alarmed Alaskans and soured feelings toward their western neighbor, Boylan said.
'If tensions heat up between the US and Russia, I think we're going to feel it most acutely in Alaska again,' he said.
With the rise of Putin in the early 2000s, business partnerships and academic collaboration began to falter, Ramseur said, but tension took hold more deeply with Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The Anchorage Assembly suspended its decades-old 'sister city' relationship with the Siberian city of Magadan the following year, saying it could not 'turn a blind eye to the actions of the Russian government.' But Juneau, the state's capital, voted to continue a similar relationship with Vladivostok.
Alaska's position at the junction of Asia and North America has long made it a strategic site for diplomacy, Boylan said. Most recently, the Biden administration conducted high-level talks with China at the Hotel Captain Cook in Anchorage in 2021.
The White House has not confirmed exactly where the meeting will take place. But Larry Disbrow, a realtor who operates short-term rentals in Anchorage and who is also an honorary consul of Germany, said he has rented a six-bedroom property to the Secret Service for the meeting.
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'The US Secret Service contacted me earlier today, and they asked me if I might have availability of any of my places, and I did for the window that they needed,' said Disbrow, who goes by Beau.
He added: 'I could see why Alaska might be an attractive place for something like this, you know, from a historical perspective. But it surprised me, for sure.'
Suzanne LaFrance, Anchorage's mayor, said in an interview Saturday that she hadn't received any indication whether her city would host the meeting between Trump and Putin.
'Hosting leaders is not unusual for us here in Alaska,' LaFrance said. 'Serving as a place for diplomacy is part of our history, as we are that crossroads of the world.'
Russian influences are prevalent in Anchorage, where a small grocery store chain sells Russian food, and a downtown restaurant, popular with late-night diners, specializes in pelmeni, or Russian dumplings.
Trump has visited Alaska at least five times since he first took office in 2017, mostly for stops at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage. The meeting with Putin will make this Trump's first official trip to the state since the start of his second term.
The state's congressional delegation and governor, all Republicans, publicly welcomed the selection of their state for the meeting between Trump and Putin.
'For centuries, Alaska has been a bridge between nations, and today, we remain a gateway for diplomacy, commerce and security in one of the most critical regions on earth,' Governor Mike Dunleavy posted on social platform X on Friday.
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Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, said that while she remained 'deeply wary of Putin and his regime,' she hoped the talks would help end the war in Ukraine on equitable terms.
Eric Croft, chair of the Alaska Democratic Party, said the meeting highlighted Trump's failure to fulfill his campaign pledge of ending the war on the first day of his administration.
'We'd love the war in Gaza and Ukraine to be resolved, and stop killing civilians,' Croft said in an interview Saturday. 'I think most Alaskans are more worried about inflation and cuts to Medicaid and cuts to public radio, but we'll entertain them if they need it.'
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