Putin’s lapdog MPs threaten to TAKE BACK Alaska from the US as revenge if the West uses seized Russian assets to help rebuild Ukraine
- Vyacheslav Volodin, Russia’s most-senior MP, issued fresh threat to America
- He threatened to take back Alaska if West uses Russian assets to rebuild Ukraine
- ‘We also have something to get back… Alaska,’ he told a hearing of parliament
- The US purchased Alaska from Russia in 1876, and made it a state in 1959
Vladimir Putin’s lapdog parliament has threatened to take back Alaska from the US if seized Russian assets are used to rebuild Ukraine after the war.
Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of the state Duma and Russia’s most-senior politician, made the astonishing suggestion during a session of parliament on Wednesday.
America must remember before it starts spending seized Russian money ‘that we also have something to get back’ Volodin said, telling MPs to ‘keep an eye on Alaska’.
Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of Russia’s lapdog parliament, has suggested taking back Alaska from the US if seized Russian money is used to rebuild Ukraine
The Russian Empire had a number of outposts in North America that it founded in the 18th and 19th centuries, the first and longest-lasting of which were in Alaska.
But Tsar Alexander II sold the territory to President Andrew Johnson in 1867 for $7.2million – $144million in today’s money – and it became a state in 1959.
‘Decency is not weakness,’ Volodin told the lower house of parliament on Wednesday. ‘We always have something to answer with.
‘Let America always remember, there is part of its territory… Alaska.’
He warned: ‘When they start trying to dispose of our resources abroad, let them think before they do so that we also have something to get back.’
He ordered other MPs to ‘keep an eye on Alaska’.
President Zelensky and his allies have ramped up calls to use seized Russian assets to pay for the rebuilding of Ukraine in recent weeks, ahead of making a formal proposition to the UN in September.
Ukraine estimates the cost of rebuilding damage to the country – as things stand today – is an eye-watering $750billion.
In order to ease the burden on both Kyiv and its allies, politicians say seized Russian assets – including $300billion in foreign currency reserves – should contribute towards the final bill.
The idea has gained some traction. Canada has recently passed laws allowing Russia assets to be liquidated for reparations, and similar laws are being discussed by EU leaders Urusula von der Leyen and Charles Michel.
That has caused fury within Russia, with MP Pyotr Tolstoy – great great grandson of writer Leo Tolstoy and deputy speaker of the Duma – on Wednesday suggesting that a referendum should be held in Alaska on rejoining Russia.
Sham referendums are typically held by Russian on territory it is planning to appropriate into the mainland.
A similar vote was carried out in 2014 in Crimea – with 96 per cent of people voting to join Russia, under duress from troops stationed there at the time – before it was annexed to the mainland.
It is thought Russia will attempt a similar tactic in areas of Ukraine it has occupied since the start of the war to try and take permanent ownership of them: Kherson and Mariupol in the south, and Luhansk province in the east.
Kremlin-appointed leaders were rumoured to be preparing votes in the lead-up to Russia’s Victory Day back in May, but held off amid partisan attacks.
It is hardly the first time that Russia has made threats towards Alaska under the pretense of ‘taking back’ its ‘historic territory.’
Back in March, just weeks after Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine, Putin’s ‘spin doctor’ Oleg Matveychev demanded the US return not only Alaska, but also Fort Ross in California – a 19th century settlement just outside of modern-day San Francisco.
Speaking on a state media propaganda channel, Matveychev demanded ‘the return of all Russian properties, those of the Russian empire, the Soviet Union and current Russia, which has been seized in the United States.’
Among those properties were Alaska and Fort Ross, he added, before throwing in the entirety of Antarctica for good measure.
‘We discovered it, so it belongs to us,’ he said.
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