Washington/moscow – In a visit that is the first of its kind in history, Russian President Vladimir Putin intends to visit the US state of Alaska. Notably, no Russian leader has ever visited this state before.
During the Soviet era, Nikita Khrushchev, Alexei Kosygin, and Leonid Brezhnev visited the United States. Furthermore, Mikhail Gorbachev visited it 3 times, while Boris Yeltsin visited 5 times.
Over the past decades, (former) Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has toured the United States, including Hawaii, New York, and Pittsburgh. Meanwhile, Putin has visited New York, Texas, Maryland, Georgia, and Maine.
Earlier on Saturday, US President Donald Trump said he would meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on August 15 in Alaska. This meeting forms part of his efforts to help mediate an end to the conflict in Ukraine.
Russian Presidential Assistant Vladimir Putin, Yuri Ushakov, confirmed that the latter and his American counterpart will meet in the US state of Alaska on Friday, August 15. This confirmation was given according to the Russian news website Sputnik.
It is worth noting that the last visit of a Russian president to the United States was 10 years ago – in September 2015.
Tsarist Russia sold the state of Alaska to the United States in 1867. The transaction was for an amount equivalent to $7.2 million. It was officially approved as a state on January 3, 1959. At that time, it ranked 49th in the number of states. Alaska is separate from the rest of the United States. It is located to the northwest of Canada. Additionally, it is separated from the territory of the Russian Federation by the Bering Strait.
