Several billboards with the slogan “Alaska is ours!” have reportedly appeared in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk. Most recently, Vyacheslav Volodin, a Putin confidant and head of the Russian parliament, suggested that Russia could “recapture” Alaska, reports the US news portal Newsweek.
By retaking Alaska, Russia could retaliate against economic sanctions imposed over the war of aggression against Ukraine. “America should always remember that there is one piece of territory, namely Alaska,” Volodin said during a session of Russia’s parliament on Wednesday, the Moscow Times reports.
Before the United States “try to manage our resources abroad, they should remember that we too have something they can reclaim.”
Volodin’s deputy, Pyotr Tolstoy, has reportedly proposed a “referendum” in which Alaskans should vote on joining Russia. Responding to the Russian politicians’ words on Twitter, Republican Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy said: “To the Russian politicians who believe they can take back Alaska: good luck.”
“They’ve gone completely insane,” Russian media observer Ian Garner commented on Twitter, sharing a photo of one of the billboards.
Meanwhile in Krasnoyarsk the guesswork is going on about the author of the billboards, reports the local news portal “NGS24”. The signs do not appear to have been officially put up. Rather, a local trailer manufacturer named Alaska is responsible for the plaques, the report says. The head of the Russian company is “very patriotic,” the portal quotes an employee as saying.
However, the billboards in Krasnoyarsk were not well received. Many users were outraged on social networks, reports “NGS24”. An opposition politician commented on the signs with the words: “Tell him he was wrong.”
