Recently, as the "Russia-Ukraine conflict" continues to take shape, the United States behind the scenes can't help but take action. The US Department of Justice announced that the United States and its allies have frozen nearly 300 billion of Russia's overseas assets, and this batch of assets will be gradually confiscated and legalized to punish Russia for supporting the four eastern Ukraine states to hold a "referendum to Russia" ceremony.
In this regard, Russia is not to be outdone. Russian Duma MP said: If the US insists on freezing overseas assets of the Russian government and citizens, then Russia will also consider taking back the US "Alaska" . Once the news came out, it attracted widespread attention from the international community.
So, why did Russia say such things? What kind of connection does Alaska and Russia have?
US states and counties, originating from Russia
As we all know, Alaska is one of the fifty states in the United States, with its state area accounting for 20% of the total area of the United States, about 1.72 million square kilometers of land. However, such a large piece of land has no borders with the mainland of the United States. To be precise, Alaska is an enclave of the United States, separated by a country called Canada.
The origin of Alaska can actually be traced back to the Russians, because Alaska was purchased by the United States from the Tsarist Russian Empire, and the transaction only cost the US government $7.2 million, which is less than $4.2 per square kilometer of land.
When Peter the Great of Russia was reigned, he entrusted the Danish navigator Vitus Bering to the east of Siberia to find land and wealth resources. During his 16-year sailing, Bering discovered Alaska, Bering Sea, Bering Strait and other areas, thus receiving rewards from the Russian royal family.
At the end of the 18th century, the Russians established settlements in Alaska for the first time and began to consciously include this area in their own domination.
In the eyes of the Russians, Alaska has always been a territory used to plunder maritime resources and conduct fur transactions. In particular, most of Alaska is located north of 60° north latitude. About one-third of the land is in the Arctic Circle, and there are ice, snow and sparsely populated phenomena, so the Russians have never paid attention to it.
At that time, Russia's main focus was still in Europe. They wanted an estuary close to the Mediterranean, and for this, they did not hesitate to fight with their surrounding friends and neighbors for hundreds of years. In this process, the biggest resistance Russia faces is the "maritime overlord" Britain. In order to avoid an existence that can threaten itself, Britain is trying hard to weaken the emerging and rising Russia.
1853, in order to prevent Russia from obtaining the Mediterranean sea port, Britain and France, the Kingdom of Sardinia and Türkiye launched a huge "Crimean War". This war lasted for three years, and the Russian army was defeated again and again by the four-national coalition forces, and the country's economy was on the verge of collapse.
In this case, the Russians' first reaction was not how to restore the economy, but to think about where Britain would give itself a fatal blow after the war. After repeated thinking and argumentation, the Russians believed that Britain could not attack Russia's mainland through Europe, and the rest could only counterattack Russia's Far East from Alaska.
Coincidentally, Alaska is adjacent to Canada, and Canada is a British colony. Britain maintained a large number of troops locally, and Russia could not resist the British attack at all. In other words, as long as Britain was willing, they could attack Russian mainland from both sides at any time.
As of this time, the Russian rulers were also a little panicked, so he came up with a "self-righteous" way, which is to resell Alaska to other countries, thereby blocking the British attack on Russia's mainland.
At that time, in many countries and regions around the world, the Russian rulers finally chose the United States as the "buyer". The Russians also had many considerations for the United States to obtain Alaska.
First of all, the United States once belonged to the British colony. The American people are born with hostility to Britain. Unless one day the United States can defeat (beyond) Britain, the relatively "weak" United States must always guard against Britain, the world's number one strong country, to prevent them from annexing the United States as a colony again.
Secondly, if the United States obtained the Alaska region, then the situation of attacking on both sides would no longer be Russia. Instead, the British government should be worried and be careful of the United States' attack on Canada's British troops from both the mainland and Alaska.
Finally, the United States began to pursue "Monroyism" in the early 19th century and maintained a neutral state of war against European countries. However, the United States will automatically regard the related wars in the Americas as hostile behavior, which shows that the United States has listed America as its own pocket. Once Britain increases its troops to Canada, the first country that does not agree is probably the United States.
Based on the above three aspects, the Russian rulers decided to sell Alaska to the Americans. After multiple rounds of negotiations and negotiations, the two sides finally decided to complete the transaction at a price of 7.2 million US dollars (7 million US dollars land price and 200,000 US dollars handling fee).
On October 18, 1867, the Russian flag officially fell from Alaska, and the American flag also rose from Alaska for the first time. On this day, Alaska also became the 49th state in American history, and Americans also named this day "Alaska Anniversary".
development and utilization, buying and selling
at a loss, the American people initially opposed the purchase of "Alaska", but they could not withstand the US Secretary of State Seward insisted on buying, and even pulled President Johnson out. The two of them went against the opposition and forced the Alaska negotiation purchase plan.
At that time, after the news of the United States buying Alaska came, there was an uproar in the United States. Countless Americans took to the streets, calling Shiward and Johnson "prodigal sons" and believing that this was a total loss-making deal. Shiward was completely dissatisfied with it. He told the Americans: "This land is likely to be the wealth of future generations!"
According to later American history, Shiward's idea was completely correct, but no one could understand him during that period.
After all, the land price of less than $4.2 per square kilometer seems to be very cheap, but 17 of the 20 highest mountain ranges in the United States are in Alaska, and most of the active glaciers on the earth are also in Alaska, and these glaciers and mountains are all unusable land.
In addition, the annual temperatures in southeastern and south-central Alaska are between 0 and 15 degrees Celsius. The western and south-west are affected by the marine climate, and the cold and windy cannot adapt to it. The Arctic Circle is even more sub-zero temperatures all year round. In this way, the entire Alaska is completely a barren land with no value worth developing.
However, no one expected that after the United States took over Alaska, they discovered that there were abundant fishery resources near Alaska. Its coastal 34,000-mile coastline and its surrounding cold waters are one of the largest and most fertile fishing grounds in the world. Half of the seafood exports in the United States are shipped from Alaska, and Alaska has also seen multiple world-class fishing ports, attracting a large number of foreign investment.
After entering the 1970s, Americans discovered that Alaska had a large amount of oil and natural gas resources underground. Among them, the national oil reserves in Alaska alone had as high as 8.7 billion barrels of oil. As for the coastal oil reserves and the oil reserves in the Arctic Circle, it is even more incalculable. In addition, there are 250,000 cubic feet of natural gas reserves here.
In order to obtain Alaska oil, the US government specially built a 1,200-kilometer "crossing Alaska oil pipeline". Relying on this pipeline, the continuous oil was sent to the United States and other regions in the world. The oil industry has gradually become a pillar industry in Alaska.
Of course, in addition to the two main resources above, Alaska, like Canada next door, has dense forestry resources. It is located in the National Forest Area in southeast Alaska, and it occupies a total of 17 million acres of forest land, of which commercial forest land also reaches about 5 million, which has brought a lot of work in the logging industry and furniture industry to Alaska.
At the end of the last century, Alaska's mountains were also developed, and Americans discovered rich mineral resources in it. Coal, iron, copper, gold, silver and other precious metals emerged one after another, which also made Alaska richer and richer.
According to incomplete statistics, after Alaska was gradually developed, the US government could obtain $100 billion a year by relying solely on tax revenue. This fund has long exceeded the price of land purchases back then, so the American people's business not only did not lose money but also made a lot of money.
During the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, the strategic value of Alaska was also highlighted. The US military successively established multiple naval bases here to curb the Soviet Union's Far East military force. Even after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States relied on this place to gain enough voice in the Asia-Pacific region and then realized its own hegemonic ideas.
The United States turned against each other and had another dispute
To this day, the United States has made a lot of money in Alaska, while Russia, which is separated by a sea, seems to have lost a lot. However, due to the past transaction, more than a hundred years have passed, and the international community has already clearly stipulated that the property of various countries is sacred and inviolable, so the Russians can only break their teeth and swallow it.
In February 2022, the Russian-Ukraine conflict officially broke out. This was originally a conflict and dispute between Russia and Ukraine, but the United States and other Western countries intervened in it, supporting Ukraine to provoke Russia, causing the scale of the conflict to continue to expand and once entered a state of war.
After the outbreak of the war, the United States was like nothing, condemning Russia widely in the international community, while secretly sending weapons and equipment to Ukraine to consume Russia.
Seeing Ukraine losing again and again, the US government even openly and illegally frozen the property of the Russian government and citizens in order to help Ukraine fight Russia, which obviously undermined the rules of the international community.
According to the Russians' ideas, since you don't recognize my legal assets, I don't have to stick to the old sales contract. Let's just take it together.
It is in this special situation that the Russian State Duma MP said: If the US insists on freezing overseas assets of the Russian government and citizens, then Russia will also consider the idea of taking back the US "Alaska" .
However, Russia's measure hit the United States with just one stick, because from the perspective of distance, there is only less than 85 kilometers from Alaska to Russia, while the United States and Alaska is 3170 kilometers away.
In addition, most Alaska people are mainly immigrants. They generally do not have much sense of belonging to the United States. Even the Alaska government is full of complaints about the United States. The reason is that American politicians rarely notice this except for tax collection, and Alaska's oil, minerals and other resources are always resold to the United States at extremely low prices.
Under the guidance of various reasons, Alaska's idea of "independence" is getting bigger and bigger. If they forcibly declare "referendum on independence", I think Russia will definitely support the people of Alaska.
And wanting to make "independence" is by no means the behavior of a state in Alaska, the United States. In the past few decades, more than half of the states in the United States have put forward the idea of "independence". Assuming that once Alaska succeeds in independence, other states and counties in the United States will definitely follow the trend, and then the United States will truly become the one who picks up sesame seeds and throws watermelons.
Of course, this is just a hypothesis, but as Russian lawmakers propose to take back Alaska, the United States has to consider the consequences of the assumption once it becomes a reality.At the same time, the US Department of Justice must also consider whether it will completely anger Russia in the freezing of Russian assets, forcing the other party to support the independence of local states and counties in the United States, or pull the United States into the quagmire of war.
