Latest news with #AnchorageAssembly
Time of India
7 hours ago
- Politics
- Time of India
State was once sold for $7.2 million - Why Alaska matters in Trump-Putin talks? Russian legacy, wartime history, and Cold War strategy in focus
File photo of US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin When US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin meet in Alaska on Friday, the summit will unfold against a backdrop of centuries of history between the two nations and a state that has long been at the frontlines of international tensions. Alaska's Russian roots Russian fur traders arrived in Alaska in the early 18th century, establishing hubs in Sitka and Kodiak Island. Though the Russian population never exceeded 400 settlers, their presence left lasting marks: the oldest building in Anchorage is a Russian Orthodox church, and many Alaska Natives bear Russian surnames. Russian settlers coerced locals into harvesting sea otters for pelts, while missionaries baptized an estimated 18,000 Alaska Natives. By 1867, depleted resources and post-Crimean War finances led Czar Alexander II to sell Alaska to the United States for $7.2 million -- a move derided as 'Seward's Folly' until gold was discovered decades later. Strategic importance in war and peace Alaska proved its strategic value during World War II when Japanese forces captured Attu Island, the only battle on North American soil. During the Cold War, US leaders feared Soviet attacks via the North Pole, prompting radar and missile installations, while military construction shaped roads and communities that later facilitated oil development and the trans-Alaska pipeline. Recent Pentagon warnings about Russian and Chinese activity in the Arctic have seen US troops deployed to remote Aleutian islands, highlighting Alaska's ongoing strategic relevance. A long history of high-profile visits Alaska has hosted a range of world leaders. Japanese Emperor Hirohito stopped in Anchorage in 1971; President Reagan met Pope John Paul II in Fairbanks in 1984. Barack Obama visited in 2015, becoming the first sitting US president north of the Arctic Circle. More recently, Chinese President Xi Jinping toured Anchorage in 2017, and US-China talks resumed there in 2021. Criticism of the summit location Some Alaskans question the symbolism of hosting Putin in the state, especially following Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The Anchorage Assembly suspended its sister city relationship with Magadan, while the Juneau Assembly expressed concern to Vladivostok. Activist group Stand Up Alaska has organized protests ahead of the summit. Experts suggest that the location could send unintended messages. Nigel Gould-Davies, former British ambassador to Belarus, warned that Putin might use Alaska's history to argue territorial claims, 'It's easy to imagine Putin making the argument…'We gave you Alaska. Why can't Ukraine give us a part of its territory?'' Alaska, with its Russian heritage, strategic significance, and history of high-stakes diplomacy, now plays host to yet another chapter in US-Russia relations, one that blends history, geography, and modern geopolitics in equal measure.
Associated Press
10 hours ago
- Politics
- Associated Press
Live updates: Trump speaks with European leaders ahead of his meeting with Putin
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday arrived in Berlin for talks with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and virtual meetings with other European and U.S. leaders ahead of a planned summit between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday. Merz has convened a series of virtual meetings in an attempt to have the voice of European and Ukrainian leaders heard ahead of the summit in Alaska. Zelenskyy and the Europeans have been sidelined from that summit. German government spokesperson Steffen Meyer said the intention of Wednesday's meetings was to 'make clear the position of the Europeans.' Zelenskyy is due to meet with European leaders first, in preparation for a virtual call with Trump and Vice President JD Vance about an hour later. A call between leaders of countries involved in the 'coalition of the willing' — those who are prepared to help police any future peace agreement between Moscow and Kyiv — will take place last. Update: Date: 2025-08-13 12:25:19 Title: Protests being organized for Trump-Putin summit Content: The group Stand Up Alaska has organized rallies on Thursday and Friday in the state, where sentiment toward Russia has cooled since Putin invaded Ukraine in 2022. The Anchorage Assembly voted unanimously to suspend its three-decade-long sister city relationship with Magadan, Russia, and the Juneau Assembly sent its sister city of Vladivostock a letter expressing concern. Dimitry Shein, who ran unsuccessfully for Alaska's lone seat in the U.S. House in 2018, fled from the Soviet Union to Anchorage with his mother in the early 1990s. He expressed dismay that Trump has grown increasingly authoritarian. Russia and the U.S. 'are just starting to look more and more alike,' he said. ▶ Read more about Alaska's history with Russia Update: Date: 2025-08-13 12:04:05 Title: Trump's evolving rhetoric about Zelenskyy and Putin Content: Candidate Trump repeatedly said he could end the war in Ukraine 'in 24 hours.' But since President Trump's Jan. 20 inauguration, the road to a peace deal has been fraught with changing dynamics among Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The summit between Trump and Putin set for Friday in Alaska could now be a pivotal moment in the 3 1/2-year-old war. 'At the end of that meeting, probably the first two minutes, I'll know exactly whether or not a deal can be made,' Trump said Monday. ▶ Read more about what Trump has said about Zelenskyy and Putin. Update: Date: 2025-08-13 12:01:49 Title: Trump is visiting the Kennedy Center for the announcement of this year's honorees Content: And according to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Trump might make an announcement of his own, too. The center said in a statement that 'our beautiful building will undergo renovations to restore its prestige and grandeur' and credited Trump's advocacy. Trump complained during a March visit that the building is in a state of 'tremendous disrepair.' Update: Date: 2025-08-13 12:00:43 Title: Catch up on the latest headlines Content: AP Morning Wire curates the most important stories and sends them straight to your inbox. Sign up for the free newsletter here.
Boston Globe
3 days ago
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Trump and Putin may get a cold reception from some Alaskans
Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up '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.' Advertisement 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. Advertisement '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. Advertisement '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. Advertisement 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.' This article originally appeared in
Yahoo
01-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Ahead of Tuesday deadline, Anchorage ballot returns are on pace with recent municipal elections
Mar. 31—Anchorage voters have until 8 p.m. Tuesday to return their ballots to be counted in this year's municipal election. As of Monday morning, election officials had processed close to 30,000 ballots. Municipal Clerk Jamie Heinz, who is overseeing the city's vote count, said those numbers track closely with returns at this stage in other recent local elections. "It is right on par with 2019, 2022 and 2023," Heinz said. The tally includes ballots received through Friday. Over the weekend, Heinz said, drop boxes across the city received a surge of ballots. Those close-to-the-wire upswings ahead of the Tuesday deadline have become normal in the years since Anchorage first switched to a vote-by-mail election system in 2018. In 2023, the last citywide election without the mayorship on the ballot, 65,853 people voted, a turnout rate just under 30%, which is typical for Anchorage in non-mayoral years. The first batch of returns will be published Tuesday evening, "likely around 8:30 p.m.," Heinz wrote in an email. Those results will include ballots received through this past weekend and a portion of those received on Monday, according to Heinz. Though they will offer clear signs of who is likely to win in a given race, results will continue trickling in for days as late-arriving ballots are processed and will not be considered final until certified by the Anchorage Assembly. Results rarely change in the days following initial returns, but gaps between candidates can narrow, and in narrow races, candidates might swap the advantage as more ballots are tallied. Heinz said the city expects to post new results each day "for the remainder of the week after 4:45 p.m. but before 5:15 p.m.," and on Monday, Wednesday and Friday the following week. Residents will determine six of the 12 seats on the Anchorage Assembly, as well as two Anchorage School Board members. There are 11 bond measure and tax levies, as well, related to everything from school construction projects to public safety vehicles. [2025 Anchorage municipal election guide: Q&As with candidates for Assembly and school board] [What the latest fundraising reports tell us about Anchorage Assembly and school board races] Ballot envelopes can be returned by mail, at secure drop boxes across the municipality, or in person. Residents with lost or damaged ballots, or who wish to cast their vote in person, can do so at three Anchorage Vote Centers, located in City Hall, at the Loussac Library or in the Eagle River Town Center. Ballot envelopes returned by mail need a first-class stamp, and at this point in the election, officials recommend bringing them to a post office to be hand-canceled since ballots must be postmarked on or before election day.
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
What the latest fundraising reports tell us about Anchorage Assembly and school board races
Mar. 27—The latest round of campaign finance reports ahead of Anchorage's municipal election deadline Tuesday includes a number of interesting clues about how this year's contests are playing out. Overall, many of this year's Anchorage Assembly and school board races do not appear competitive, at least in terms of support from financial donors. Four of the six Assembly seats effectively have one candidate raising and spending campaign funds. The two school board incumbents on the ballot are massively outraising their challengers. The two exceptions are the contests in downtown Anchorage, where both candidates are closely matched in terms of financing, and Eagle River, where one of three had been a near-total non-entity up until recently, when he received a slew of donations from union groups. Voters in Anchorage were mailed ballots in mid-March and have until Tuesday to return them by mail or drop boxes around town, or at in-person voting sites. [Anchorage vote centers now open in ramp-up to Tuesday's city election voting deadline] Eagle River Up until the latest round of financial disclosures, the race for the open seat representing Chugiak and Eagle River looked like it was effectively between two candidates, even though a third had technically filed to run. Jared Goecker, who ran as a Republican for a state Senate seat last fall, has brought in almost $9,000 in donations, including $2,676 during the first three weeks of March. Almost all of his spending was on consulting and advertising services run by the Ritacco Group, a conservative campaign firm headquartered in Wasilla. Goecker's primary opponent appeared to be Kyle Walker, a civil engineer, who has raised a total of $3,211. In the latest reporting period, Walker's biggest donation was $946 from himself, which was used to pay for yard signs. A third candidate, David Littleton, did not file any fundraising disclosures prior to the latest round. He had not put a campaign website online, nor responded to the Anchorage Daily News's candidate questionnaire. But on the last day of January he reported receiving $1,000 from Justin Weaver, a private asset manager in Anchorage who, since 2022, has become one of the biggest donors in local and state political races. In the weeks after, Littleton received checks from eight political action committees representing unions, including the Anchorage Police Department, state and public employees, laborers, and the Juneau Central Labor Council. In total, Littleton reported raising $8,275, almost entirely from organized labor. Besides Weaver, the only individual donor who shows up in his report is Littleton himself, with a $25 contribution. "I'm a member of the laborers union," said Littleton, an instructor at the Alaska Laborers Training School in Chugiak, of the PAC donations. "The rest of them I filled out questionnaires, I was asked to do interviews ... I didn't approach them, they approached me." Littleton's campaign website is very minimal. Instead of a page laying out policy positions, there are a few bullet points with proposals like, "Keep homelessness out of Eagle River and Chugiak," and "Fighting to reduce property taxes." Most of the $5,148 he reported spending went to signs and printing campaign literature, which he's distributed during door-knocking in the district. But $784 went to the Ship Creek Group for campaign start-up costs. The Anchorage firm has represented a wide range of clients but leans progressive, and does a lot of work with union groups. "They kinda just did all the little detail things I needed to get started," Littleton said. "They were a really big help on navigating all of the initial things I had to do." Ira Slomski-Pritz is a partner with Ship Creek Group, and handles the firm's work on Assembly races. He said they had not been looking to take on the Eagle River race but were contacted by Littleton. "He seems like a regular, working guy who seemed like he wanted to represent Eagle River," Slomski-Pritz said. "He seemed very reasonable." He confirmed that Ship Creek helped get basic campaign infrastructure in place for Littleton, but said that any PAC contributions would have been handled by the groups themselves. Littleton said one of his primary motivations to run was that he believed one of the other candidates had entered the race not to help the community but instead as a launch pad for his own political career. "And I'm sick and tired of career politicians," said Littleton, whose background is in construction. Downtown The District 1 race, which includes downtown Anchorage and the surrounding neighborhoods, is between incumbent Daniel Volland and first-time candidate Daniel George. The two are faring similarly in terms of their campaign fundraising and spending. Money in municipal races matters, but it is far from determinative: Recent cycles saw unprecedented levels of spending as conservative challengers tried to knock left-leaning incumbents off the body, but mostly failed, and in most cases without much of a change in turnout or vote share. Volland brought in $15,500 in his latest report to the Alaska Public Offices Commission, which covers three weeks from the start of the month until March 22. George raised slightly more, $20,454. In the same time frame, they spent about $20,000 and $21,000, respectively. Over the course of the full campaign, Volland has taken in just under $53,000 to George's $38,585, though the latter entered the campaign later on. Volland's donors in his latest filing are a mix of labor union political action committees, current and former Democratic elected officials like Mark Begich and Forrest Dunbar, as well as former Mayor Rick Mystrom, a Republican. George has received donations from people all over the political spectrum, but his most recent filing saw a large number of established conservatives who have been active in recent years financing challengers from the right in local races, including former Anchorage first lady Deb Bronson and past Alaska Republican Party Chairman Randy Ruedrich. Volland's largest expenditures during the reporting period were direct mail, and more than $4,000 for digital ads on Facebook and Google platforms. There was also a $500 payment for campaign consulting to Ship Creek. The majority of George's spending, close to $15,000, paid for work like signage and direct mail handled by Wasilla-based firm Optima Public Relations, which has worked with many of the most conservative candidates in Alaska politics over the last several years. Asymmetrical races Two of the most expensive races this cycle are the contests for the school board. Unlike the Assembly races, school board seats are "area wide," meaning all voters in the municipality, regardless of which neighborhood or part of town they live in, vote on them. The two incumbents, Margo Bellamy and Kelly Lessens, have raised a total of $65,876 and $83,696, respectively, reflecting support from a mix of small individual donors and union PACs. By contrast, the two candidates running against them, Alexander Rosales and Mark Anthony Cox, have reported bringing in $2,548 and $7,425. In Rosales' case, however, much of that total came from self-donations or campaign purchases miscategorized as outside contributions. For example, $40 Rosales noted as campaign income appears to have been likewise listed as an expense: On the same day he reported spending $40 for premium account verification on the social media site X. In four Assembly races, just one candidate reported raising most or all of the money. West Anchorage incumbent Kameron Perez-Verdia raised $11,295 in the latest filing period, and $63,763 since the start of the campaign. Erin Baldwin Day, a first-time candidate running to take over outgoing vice chair Meg Zaletel's Midtown seat, raised $9,330 according to her latest report and has brought in a total of $48,896. Yarrow Silvers, running to take over the open East Anchorage seat currently held by Karen Bronga, has raised a total of $44,145, including $10,740 in the latest filing window. And Keith McCormick, running to represent South Anchorage, has raised a total of $28,753, with $7,705 of it coming in the first three weeks of March. The candidates running against those four, along with a third candidate running for the downtown seat, either did not file campaign finance reports with APOC or reported no income. They include Nicholas Danger, Jonathan Duckworth, Amie Steen, Angela Frank, John Stiegele and Darin Colbry. After not filing any prior reports this cycle, Midtown candidate Don Smith submitted one showing $375 in outside donations that was applied to postage for a mailer.
