Trump-Putin Meeting: How Russia Sold Alaska To US For Just Rs 62 Crore?

When US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin meet in Anchorage, Alaska, on Friday, it will mark the latest chapter in the 49th state’s long relationship with Russia and its recurring role in moments of global tension.

From Russian Outpost to US Territory

Alaska’s ties to Russia date back to the early 18th century, when Siberian fur traders crossed the Bering Sea to harvest sea otters and other marine mammals for their valuable pelts. Trading hubs emerged in Sitka and Kodiak Island, though the Russian population never exceeded about 400 permanent settlers.

Russian settlers relied heavily on Alaska Native labour, often using brutal methods to coerce communities into hunting. “It was a relationship… much more about a short-term pattern of extraction,” said Ian Hartman, a University of Alaska Anchorage history professor, to AP.

Meanwhile, Russian Orthodox missionaries baptised an estimated 18,000 Alaska Natives, leaving a religious and cultural imprint that survives today in churches and surnames.

Also Read: Trump-Putin Meeting: How Ending Ukraine War Could Ease US Tariffs And Benefit India

By the 1860s, the sea otter population had been nearly wiped out. Russia, weakened after the Crimean War and unable to defend the territory against possible US or British expansion, chose to sell.

In 1867, Czar (King of then Russia) Alexander II agreed to transfer Alaska to the United States for $7.2 million (Approx Rs 62 crore). Critics called it “Seward’s Folly”, after Secretary of State William H. Seward, but public opinion shifted when gold was discovered in the Klondike in 1896.

Strategic Role in War and Peace

Alaska’s location — Little Diomede Island in the US is less than 3 miles from Russia’s Big Diomede — has given it a strategic military role. During World War II, Japan seized Attu, the westernmost island in the Aleutians, in 1942.

The US recaptured it in 1943 in what became known as the war’s “forgotten battle”, the only WWII land battle fought on North American soil.

During the Cold War, Alaska became a defensive outpost against possible Soviet nuclear attacks over the North Pole. The US built a chain of radar sites and missile systems, and Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, where Trump and Putin will meet, became a key hub for monitoring Soviet aircraft.

The base still hosts F-22 Raptors that intercept Russian planes entering US airspace.

Military construction helped shape Alaska’s infrastructure, from roads to techniques for building on permafrost. This expertise later supported oil drilling and the construction of the trans-Alaska pipeline.

A Diplomatic Stage with a Mixed Past

Alaska has hosted a range of world figures, from Japanese Emperor Hirohito in 1971 to Pope John Paul II’s meeting with Ronald Reagan in Fairbanks in 1984 to President Barack Obama’s 2015 visit north of the Arctic Circle.

In 2017, Chinese President Xi Jinping toured Anchorage; in 2021, US and Chinese officials held tense talks there.

Putin will be the first Russian leader to visit Alaska, but not all residents welcome him. Since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Anchorage suspended its sister city relationship with Magadan, and Juneau sent a protest letter to Vladivostok. Rallies are planned during his visit.