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The Herald Scotland
a day ago
- Politics
- The Herald Scotland
Live updates: Trump, Putin to meet to discuss Russia-Ukraine war
More: What's at stake in Trump's Alaska meeting with Putin The two leaders are meeting at a U.S. military base in Alaska. Not invited: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who spoke with Trump twice this week and has rejected the idea of territorial concessions to end the war. Trump and the White House have been downplaying expectations for the meeting, with the president saying Aug. 14 that the "more important meeting" will be one that includes both Zelenskyy and Putin. That will come next, he said. "We're going to see what happens," Trump said Aug. 14. "And I think President Putin will make peace. I think President Zelensky will make peace. We'll see if they can get along, and if they can, it'll be great." Way back in 1991, as the once-mighty Soviet Union disintegrated and Westerners cheered, Vladimir Putin's favorite rock and roll band released "Don't Fool Around, America," a patriotic hit about an even older lost cause - Russia's 1867 sale of Alaska to the United States. This bouncy, accordion-driven single ignored the disorienting collapse of the Soviet dictatorship and instead pointed listeners east, 2.4 miles 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 hosts 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. Read more on Russian seller's regret, from USA TODAY. -Dan Morrison Alaska is currently four hours behind Eastern Standard Time. The meeting between Trump and Putin is scheduled to begin around 11 a.m. Alaska Daylight Time, according to the White House, which means it will begin around 3 p.m. ET. -- Gabe Hauari Trump and Putin will meet in Anchorage, Alaska, at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, home to about 30,000 service members, their families and civilian employees. Alaska was once part of Russia - the U.S. bought it for $7.2 million in 1867 - and is separated by the Bering Strait from the Russian mainland by just 55 miles at the narrowest point. More: Trump-Putin summit spotlights Alaska's strategic importance, vulnerability Trump met with Putin multiple times during his first term, including in Helsinki, Finland, in 2018. Putin denied interfering in the 2016 election, comments that Trump embraced, saying Putin "was extremely strong and powerful in his denial" despite U.S. intelligence assessments pointing to interference by Moscow on Trump's behalf. -Zac Anderson Trump has had a famously warm relationship with Putin over the years, often praising the Russian autocrat. Trump reportedly shared classified intelligence with Russian officials during his first term and tried to soften U.S. opposition to Russia's past aggression against Ukraine and its human rights violations. Meanwhile, Ukraine and Zelenskyy featured in one of the lowest points of Trump's first term. He was impeached over allegations that he pressured Zelenskyy to dig up dirt on political rival Joe Biden. Trump's friendly approach to Putin has largely continued as he worked to get a peace deal and focused his ire on Zelenskyy, most notably during an explosive Oval Office meeting when the two clashed publicly. Trump told the Ukrainian leader he didn't "have the cards" when it came to resolving the conflict in the country's favor. Lately, though, Trump has repeatedly slammed Putin and complained about his unwillingness to stop the fighting. Putin escalated his attacks on Ukraine ahead of the summit, which former GOP House speaker and Trump ally Newt Gingrich called "a sign of very bad faith." Trump said Aug. 13 that there would be "very severe consequences" if Putin does not agree to end the war. -Zac Anderson Trump is trying to push Moscow into an accord that Kyiv and its allies fear will include the loss of significant territory seized by Russia in its 3-year-old war. Speculating about an eventual deal on Aug. 8, Trump said it would involve "some swapping of territories." That drew a sharp response from Zelenskyy, who said, "Ukrainians will not gift their land to the occupier." But Trump has continued to push, saying on Aug. 11 that he was a "little bothered" by the Ukrainian leader's assertion that a land swap would violate the country's constitution. "There will be some swapping," Trump insisted Aug. 11. "There will be some changes in land." The debate over territorial concessions hangs over the summit. Putin claims four Ukrainian regions - Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson - as well as the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which he annexed in 2014. -Zac Anderson, Francesca Chambers, Lauren Villagran
The Herald Scotland
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Herald Scotland
It was sold in 1867, but some Russians want Alaska back from the U.S.
"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 U.S., 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."
USA Today
2 days ago
- Politics
- USA Today
It was sold in 1867, but some Russians want Alaska back from the US
Theories that the United States swindled Russia out of Alaska in 1867 have percolated through the decades. Way back in 1991, as the once-mighty Soviet Union disintegrated and Westerners cheered, Vladimir Putin's favorite rock and roll band released 'Don't Fool Around, America,' a patriotic hit about an even older lost cause – Russia's 1867 sale of Alaska to the United States. This bouncy, accordion-driven single ignored the disorienting collapse of the Soviet dictatorship and instead pointed listeners east, 2.4 miles 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.'
USA Today
2 days ago
- Politics
- USA Today
It was sold in 1867, but some Russians want Alaska back from the U.S.
Theories that the United States swindled Russia out of Alaska in 1867 have percolated through the decades. Way back in 1991, as the once-mighty Soviet Union disintegrated and Westerners cheered, Vladimir Putin's favorite rock and roll band released 'Don't Fool Around, America,' a patriotic hit about an even older lost cause – Russia's 1867 sale of Alaska to the United States. 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. 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. 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 U.S., 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. 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. 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.'
