A Russian lawmaker said that his country will have more demands after its victory in Ukraine — among them, Alaska.
Duma member Oleg Matveychev said over the weekend that “after Ukraine’s demilitarization is completed,” Russia should get reparations from Europe and the U.S. “from the damage that was caused by the sanctions and the war itself.”
Those demands, he said on “Sunday Evening With Vladimir Solovyov,” include 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, and so on.”
He was then asked by the host whether he meant Alaska and Fort Ross, California.
Mr. Matveychev, whom the Daily Mail described as “the Kremlin’s spin doctor,” nodded and said “that was my next point. As well as the Antarctic. We discovered it, so it belongs to us.”
The U.S. purchased Alaska from Russia in 1867, in a deal disparaged at the time as “Seward’s Folly,” for $7.2 million.
Fort Ross, in Sonoma County north of the San Francisco Bay Area, was once a Russian colonial settlement run by a private company chartered by the czar. John Sutter, of California gold-rush fame, purchased Fort Ross for $30,000 after it had begun to decline.
Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy retweeted the Daily Mail article on Russia’s demand for his state and said “nyet.”
“Good luck with that! Not if we have something to say about it. We have hundreds of thousands of armed Alaskans and military members that will see it differently,” the Republican governor wrote.
Mr. Matveychev said the Kremlin’s demands won’t stop there and will include “the return of all medals that have been unlawfully taken from our sportsmen during all Olympic games, as well as the extradition of [doping whistleblower Grigory] Rodchenkov, along with the extradition of multiple other criminals we’ll want.”
“I think we should start voicing all of that, so they understand what will be on the table. ‘You didn’t want to talk to us about something small, like Ukraine’s neutrality, here’s what you get.’ And that’s not even all of it,” he said
• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.
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