Alaska, which will host a summit next Friday between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, was under the control of the Russian Empire before being sold to the United States in the 19th century. However, Russian influence has not faded in this American state located in the Arctic Circle.

When the Danish explorer who served in the Russian navy, Vitus Bering, sailed through the strait separating Asia and the American continent in 1728, he was on a mission for Imperial Russia.

Upon discovering the strait later named the “Bering Strait,” he found the area to the west known as Alaska, inhabited by indigenous peoples for thousands of years.

Bering’s voyage marked the beginning of a century of Russian seal hunting expeditions, with the establishment of the first colony on Kodiak Island.

In 1799, Tsar Paul I established the Russian-American Company to organize the fur trade, which led to conflicts with the native population.

Overhunting caused a sharp decline in seal and sea otter populations, collapsing the settlers’ economy. In 1867, Moscow sold Alaska to Washington for $7.2 million.

The deal sparked strong criticism in the United States and was dubbed “Seward’s Folly” after Secretary of State William Seward, who orchestrated the purchase.

The Russian Orthodox Church, which established its presence in Alaska since the founding of the Russian-American Company, remains one of the most prominent reminders of the state’s Russian past.

More than 35 historic churches line Alaska’s coasts, some topped with domes following Orthodox architectural styles, according to an association dedicated to their preservation.

The Orthodox Diocese of Alaska is the oldest in North America and includes a theological institute on Kodiak Island.

A local language derived from Russian and mixed with indigenous languages persisted for decades in various areas, especially around the major city of Anchorage, but it is now nearly extinct.

Nevertheless, Russian is still taught on the Kenai Peninsula near massive glaciers, where a small rural school affiliated with an Orthodox group known as the “Old Believers”—which split from the church in the 17th century and settled there in the 1960s—educates about 100 students in Russian.

One of the most famous remarks about Alaska’s proximity to Russia was made by Governor Sarah Palin in 2008, when she was a vice-presidential candidate on the Republican ticket with John McCain. She stated, “The Russians are our neighbors on the other side… You can actually see Russia from an island in Alaska.”

In reality, Russia cannot be seen from any point on mainland Alaska, but two islands on either side of the Bering Strait are less than four kilometers apart.

In October 2022, two Russians reached Saint Lawrence Island, less than 100 kilometers from the Russian coast, seeking asylum in the United States after President Putin announced a military draft to reinforce forces amid the Russia-Ukraine war.

The U.S. military regularly reports intercepting Russian aircraft approaching U.S. airspace over Alaska, but Russia shows no interest in reclaiming Alaska, which Putin mockingly described in 2014 as “very cold.”