BLUF: Alaska Summit

For 125 years, the modern state of Alaska was owned by the Russian Empire before being purchased by the U.S. in 1867 for $7.2 million (around $153.5 million in today’s dollars). Interestingly, tomorrow will mark the first time ever that a sitting Russian leader will visit the Arctic state when Vladimir Putin meets with President Trump to potentially discuss yet another land swap.

Putin’s last visit to the U.S. was in 2015, when he - ironically enough - sparred with President Obama over Russia’s involvement in the war in eastern Ukraine and its military intervention in Syria during the UN General Assembly in New York. Since then, the geopolitical landscape has shifted dramatically: Bashar al-Assad is no longer in power in Syria and relations between Washington and Moscow have plunged to post–Cold War lows following Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

And yet, as much as things have changed, it really has remained the same. Contrary to the optimism of the early 1990s, the recent history of U.S.–Russia relations have been defined less by the hope of partnership than by the reality of persistent rivalry and strategic confrontation. 

This week’s summit is the latest chapter in that story with recent flashpoints including Russia’s invasion of Georgia in 2008, the Euromaidan revolution, the seizure and annexation of Crimea, and even the Olympic doping scandal of 2014. While the stated goal of Friday’s meeting is to chart a path toward ending the war in Ukraine, the backdrop is so crowded that a single diplomatic handshake is unlikely to result in a ceasefire and certainly will not untangle all of our conflicts.

We’ll leave you with this, do not hold out too much hope to see big change, but be encouraged that this could be a step in the right direction. As for the Ukraine war, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and key European leaders absent from the table, the question is not only what Trump and Putin might agree on, but whether the rest of the West will accept whatever comes out of the meeting.

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