Donald Trump seemed to forget that Alaska is in the United States when he said on Monday that he planned to meet with Vladimir Putin "in Russia" on Friday for a long-awaited summit.
It was the latest in a series of gaffes by the American president, although, a little over a century and a half ago, what he said would have been true.
Alaska, with Novo-Arkhangelsk as the regional capital, remained part of the Russian Empire under Tsar Alexander II until its sale to the United States in 1867.
If Putin arrives in Alaska, as is expected, he will be greeted by traces of Russia's past presence. From the wild, rugged shores of Baranof Island to Anchorage, the state's largest city, Russian Orthodox churches with their distinctive domes still loom large in the area.
The Russian presence in Alaska began not with military force, but with the fur trade. In the mid-18th century, traders and adventurers moved east across Siberia, drawn by the promise of lucrative sea otter fur. By the 1780s, Catherine the Great had authorized the establishment of the Russian-American Company, giving it a monopoly over trade and management in the area.
Trader Alexander Baranov consolidated Russian rule in the region in the late 18th century, expanding settlements and ruthlessly suppressing resistance, especially that of the native Tlingit people, who gave him the nickname "Heartless."
Russian Orthodox priests built St. Michael's Cathedral in Novy Arkhangelsk (present-day Sitka), which still dominates the city's skyline more than 150 years later.
However, by the mid-19th century, the Russian Empire had come to view Alaska more as a burden than an asset and was quietly seeking a buyer. After its humiliating defeat in the Crimean War, the territory had become a financial burden on St. Petersburg, and the situation was further exacerbated by growing fears of an expanding British naval presence in the Pacific.
The Guardian writes that the sale of Alaska proved to be a rare diplomatic win for both sides. For Russia, it was a way to recoup money, gain a new, increasingly influential ally across the Atlantic, and avoid a potential conflict with Britain, and for the US, a chance to prevent European encroachment and assert its growing influence in the Pacific.
Yet when the Russian Empire agreed to the sale in 1867, few on either side of the Pacific immediately saw it as a complete triumph.
In St. Petersburg, some saw it as the latest imperial humiliation. The colony, remote and expensive to supply, was never the jewel of the empire, but the price, $7,2 million, seemed insultingly low to many.
"Is the sense of national pride really so worthless that it can be sacrificed for just six or seven million dollars?" the liberal newspaper Golos asked.
Across the United States, Secretary of State William H. Seward, who negotiated the treaty, was ridiculed for spending what critics considered an unreasonable sum on the frozen wasteland.
Others found the low price suspicious and wondered if Russia had simply snatched up a worthless piece of territory.
However, that perception soon changed dramatically. The gold rushes of the late 19th century and the discovery of oil fields decades later turned what was once derided as "Seward's Folly" into one of the resource-richest territories in the US and one of the best bargains in history.
The cheap sale remained etched in Russian memory and occasionally inspired fringe nationalist calls to retake Alaska.
When Americans protested in 1974 over the low price the USSR paid for wheat, Soviet trade official Vladimir Alkimov reminded them that Alaska had been sold for just seven million dollars.
The mood was different in 1867, and the sale of Alaska opened a fleeting chapter of warmer relations between Russia and the United States.
This warming of relations, as the Guardian writes, culminated in 1871, when Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich led a naval group to New York, where he was welcomed with military parades, ceremonial receptions, and civic honors.
When Trump and Putin meet in Alaska this week, that backdrop offers the prospect of a historic rekindling of ties. Ukraine can only hope that this time such a thaw will not come at the expense of its territory, and that the era of land being traded as currency in great-power deals is a thing of the past.
Putin will be the first Russian president to visit Alaska. It will be his eighth trip to the US as president, a position he has held since late 1999, except for a four-year hiatus from 2008 to 2012, when his close ally Dmitry Medvedev held the Kremlin's top job.
Russian language is still being taught
The Russian Orthodox Church solidified its presence in Alaska after the establishment of the Russian-American Company and is one of the most significant remaining Russian influences in the state.
More than 35 churches are scattered along the Alaskan coast, according to an organization dedicated to preserving these structures.
The local dialect, derived from the Russian language, mixed with indigenous languages, survived for decades in various communities, especially near Anchorage, although it has now practically disappeared, AFP writes.
However, near the massive glaciers of the southern Kenai Peninsula, the Russian language is still taught.
A small village school of the Orthodox community known as the "Old Believers", founded in the 1960s, teaches Russian to about a hundred students.
One of the most famous statements about Alaska's proximity to Russia came in 2008 from Sarah Palin, then-governor and vice presidential candidate for Republican John McCain.
"They're our neighbors, and you can actually see Russia from the mainland here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska," Palin said.
Although it is not possible to see Russia from the Alaskan mainland, only four kilometers separate the two islands that lie opposite each other in the Bering Strait.
The Russian island of Big Diomede lies west of the American island of Little Diomede, which is home to several dozen people.
Further south, two Russians landed in October 2022 on the remote island of St. Lawrence, located a few dozen miles from the Russian coast, to seek asylum.
AFP writes that they fled just weeks after Putin ordered an unpopular mobilization of citizens to strengthen the invasion of Ukraine.
The US military has said for years that it regularly intercepts Russian planes that come too close to US airspace in the region.
However, Russia is reportedly not interested in reclaiming the territory, and Putin stated in 2014 that Alaska was "too cold."
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