In a recent appearance on Russia’s state-run television, Russian political scientist Sergey Mikheyev suggested that the country’s “empire” should grow to encompass three American states.
“I want the Russian empire with Alaska, Hawaii, California, Finland, and Poland,” he said, as translated by Gerashchenko for the clip he shared. “Although Poland and Finland are so stinky, I’m not sure, to be honest. We’ll clean them.”
This is the best summary I could come up with:
In a recent appearance on Russia’s state-run television, Russian political scientist Sergey Mikheyev suggested that the country’s “empire” should grow to encompass three American states.
The clip of the remarks began to circulate on social media on Friday when it was shared by Anton Gerashchenko, an outspoken critic of Russia and a former adviser to Ukraine’s minister of internal affairs, to X, formerly Twitter.
In it, Mikheyev mentioned the territory he would like to see taken over by Russia, including three of the westernmost American states and two North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) member nations in Europe.
Near the end of the clip, the host of the program was quick to deflate Mikheyev’s comment as “wishful thinking” divorced from actual politics.
In the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and its heightened rhetoric about attempting to annex other countries and territories, suggestions about retaking Alaska from the U.S. have become prevalent.
In a December post to social media, also translated by Gerashchenko, Russian lawmaker Sergei Mironov suggested that U.S. oversight was weakening, and alluded to Alaska while discussing land that could be taken from it.
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