The choice of Alaska — a territory the United States purchased from the Russian Empire 158 years ago — for talks between Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin is being seen as symbolic by some Russian commentators who are framing it as a nod to historic ties and a chance for closer relations in future.
It appears that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has not been invited to the summit about the war in his homeland and representatives from Europe have also been excluded, fueling Kyiv’s worst fears that its future might be decided without its input.
But Moscow’s media and political elite have praised the choice of venue framing it as a reminder that the U.S. and Russia are geographically close to one another and suggesting it could strengthen relations between the two nations.
“Russia and the United States are close neighbors, bordering each other,” Putin’s aide on foreign affairs, Yuri Ushakov, said on Telegram last week. Russia’s former ambassador to the U.S. added that it seemed “quite logical for our delegation to simply fly across the Bering Strait and for such an important and anticipated summit of the leaders of the two countries to be held specifically in Alaska.”
Russian Senator Vladimir Dzhabarov also called the location “very wise,” in an interview on Tuesday with the state-owned news channel Russia24. He added that it was “very far from Ukraine,” which is around 5,000 miles away of Alaska and “very far from, unfortunately, Europe, which is now largely hostile to us.”
Russian commentators also praised the choice of Alaska.
Among them is Alexander Bobrov, who in an editorial for the state-controlled Russian broadcaster RT on Monday, wrote the summit was “more than just a meeting between two leaders,” and a “return to the logic of direct dialogue without intermediaries.”
The summit in Alaska — where Russian Orthodox churches still dot the landscape and place names like Nikolaevsk and Voznesensk speak to their shared history — could help build ties across the Bering Strait, which separates the two countries, Bobrov said.
“Alaska’s story began as Russian, continued as American — and now has the chance to become a shared chapter, if both sides choose to see it as an opportunity rather than a threat,” he added, referring to Russia’s sale of Alaska to the U.S. in 1867 for $7.2 million to avoid losing the territory to Britain and to raise funds.
The White House did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment about Russian praise for Alaska.
While the state invokes an historic cooperation between the two nations, Ukraine and Europe have urged both superpowers to include Kyiv in any discussions to end the war.
Ukraine’s Zelenskyy said Saturday that any decisions taken without Ukraine were “decisions against peace,” adding, “They will not achieve anything.”
Asked Monday if the Ukrainian president was invited to the Alaska summit Trump said Zelenskyy “wasn’t a part of it” and while he had participated in numerous meetings during the course of the war, little had come of them.
“I would say he could go, but he’s gone to a lot of meetings. You know, he’s been there for three and a half years — nothing happened,” Trump added.
European leaders meanwhile, are set to hold a videoconference on Wednesday to to coordinate negotiations to end the war ahead of a separate call with Trump and Vice President JD Vance, a spokesperson for the German government told Reuters on Tuesday.
Sidelined from the Trump-Putin tete-a-tete, a joint statement by European Union leaders on Sunday welcomed Trump’s efforts “towards ending Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine,” but stressed that “a path to peace in Ukraine cannot be decided without Ukraine.”
Promises of talks between Trump and Putin have done little to quiet the violence on the ground since their announcement.
The Kremlin’s larger army is slowly advancing deeper into Ukraine at a great cost in troops while it relentlessly bombards Ukrainian cities.
Overnight into Tuesday, Russian drone strikes killed two civilians and injured 13 more across multiple Ukrainian regions, officials in the country said.
