Russian lawmaker Oleg Matveychev vomited a list of “reparations” demands for America’s supposedly criminal mistreatment of Russia over the Ukraine invasion during a Russian state television interview on Sunday that included America giving Alaska to Moscow.
Matveychev’s conversation with TV host Vladimir Soloviev on his program Sunday Evening, airing on the state-run Russia-1 network, was translated Wednesday by the Anchorage Daily News, which did not seem terribly enthused by the proposal:
“Let’s think about reparations. The harm these sanctions caused us cost money. Return of possessions, including possessions of the Russian Empire, Soviet Union and even parts of Russia that are now occupied by the United States,” Matveychev said in the interview.
“What about the return of Alaska and Fort Ross?” the host asked, a reference to a former Russian outpost on the California coast north of San Francisco.
“This is my next point – recognizing Alaska, Fort Ross and Antarctica,” he said. “We actually discovered it, so it rightfully belongs to us.”
“Historians point out that Russia’s hold on Alaska was not very strong even before the territory was purchased by the U.S., and Russia was eager to get rid of the land in the 19th century as the Russian Empire faced economic downturn and struggled to defend the territory,” the Anchorage Daily News drily observed.
Those same historians noted that demands for control of Alaska are fairly common fodder among Russian nationalists, who have convinced themselves Washington merely “rented” Alaska from Moscow, and can therefore be evicted at Moscow’s convenience. Matveychev did not say whether America would get its security deposit back if it tidies up Alaska and cleans the carpets before it moves out.
Alaskan Gov. Mike Dunleavy rejected his state’s annexation into Russia in remarks online.
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. https://t.co/ji0Hiza1TE
— Governor Mike Dunleavy (@GovDunleavy) March 15, 2022
As for Fort Ross, it is currently a California state park billed by its tourism department as the treasure of the Sonoma Coast. The picturesque fort still boasts a set of 19th-century wheeled cannons for its defense. Presumably, Matveychev would want the cannon when America turns the fort over to Moscow, as the Russian military has been reportedly experiencing severe equipment problems during its invasion of Ukraine, and can use all the artillery it can get.
Matveychev had some other demands for reparations from the United States and Europe “after Ukraine’s demilitarization is completed,” including “the return of all medals that have been unlawfully taken from our sportsmen during all Olympic games, as well as the extradition of Rodchenkov, along with the extradition of multiple other criminals we’ll want.”
Grigory Rodchenkov is the whistleblower who exposed Russia’s gigantic state-sponsored blood doping scheme at the 2014 Sochi Olympics. Rodchenkov lives in hiding in the United States because he claims to have received assassination threats.
Russia was allowed to continue competing in international sporting events under cosmetic restrictions, such as not being able to wear the Russian flag on team uniforms, and was caught doping again at the disastrous 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
Matveychev also reportedly demanded “the lifting of all sanctions” and “the dissolution of NATO” as war booty after Russia conquers Ukraine and threatened to hold “military tribunals” for Ukrainian “terrorists,” including both current Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his predecessor Petro Poroshenko, who Zelensky defeated in the 2019 election as the “pro-Russian” candidate.
Maveychev reportedly rejected the idea of using nuclear weapons on Ukraine – “What for? We can take them down without it,” he scoffed.
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