US President Donald Trump is going out of his way to accommodate his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin by hosting their Ukraine-summit in Alaska, which is geographically ideal. Trump will have to fly around 5,400 kilometers to reach Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, where the talks are held, from the US capital Washington. The military base lies just north Anchorage, Alaska's biggest city. Putin, meanwhile, will have to fly just under 7,000 kilometers to get to the Alaska military base.

Also, historically, Alaska is a place with both American and Russian ties. This means the US and Russian delegation should feel at home there when they come together on this subarctic northwestern tip of the American continent on Friday.

Former Russian colony, sold off to the US

A land bridge once connected Russia's far east with Alaska until the end of the last ice age around 10,000 years ago, which is probably how the first humans reached the American continent. Then rising sea levels made the Bering Strait impassable and the indigenous peoples of Alaska became somewhat isolated. The name Alaska derives from the Aleut word "Alyaska," which is what the indigenous Aleutian islanders, who inhabit this region, call the area.

In 1725, Russian Tsar Peter the Great sent sailor Vitus Bering on an expedition during which he crossed what is today known as the Bering strait. In the decades that followed, Russian sailors arrived at various places in Alaska, establishing settlements and entering the lucrative fur trade. In 1799, Tsar Paul I granted exclusive trade rights to the Russian-American Company, which also performed administrative functions in Alaska.

Yet by the mid-19th century, fur trade revenue declined as Russian colonialists had hunted too many seals and otters. That is why Russia, which also found itself in economic turmoil due to the Crimean War, was looking to sell off Alaska. Great Britain, which at that time ruled Canada, showed interest in buying the region. Ultimately, however, the US did not want its rival controlling the territory and bought Alaska for $7.2 million, a huge sum of money at the time.

Oil and a renamed mountain

Alaska was long considered a wild wasteland until large oil reserves were discovered in 1967. Oil extraction is largely responsible for Alaska's ongoing economic boom. Indeed, mere hours after taking office on January 20, 2025, Trump issued an executive order expanding oil and gas production in Alaska, while also relaxing environmental protection standards.

In his inaugural speech, Trump also announced his plan to change the name of Alaska's highest mountain back to Mount McKinley. The 6,000-meter-tall (19,685-feet-tall) mountain, the tallest in the US no less, was known as Mount McKinley from 1917 to 2015, until President Barack Obama restored its original indigenous name Denali. Trump thinks highly of former US President William McKinley, who also used tariffs as a foreign policy lever, and who expanded the US territory to include Hawaii and various Pacific and Atlantic islands.

Orthodox churches, missile launchers and refugees

To this day, Alaska is home to some 80 Russian Christian Orthodox communities who celebrate Christmas in early January in accordance with the Orthodox faith.

In Cold War times, the Bering Sea, which separated the US from the Soviet Union, became known as the Ice Curtain. Alaska suddenly became the first line of defense for the US continent in the event of a Soviet attack. That is why the US Army set up infrastructure like Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, radar installations and missile sites in Alaska.

Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, a Republican who ran as vice president alongside John McCain in the 2008 presidential election, warned about the danger posed by Russia. She wanted the see greater vigilance and determination in dealing with their "next-door neighbor," whose troops had just invaded Georgia, which is why Palin called for admitting Georgia and Ukraine into NATO. The US and Russia are in fact very close. Two Diomede Islands in the Bering Strait are only three kilometers apart — the larger one belonging to Russia, the smaller to Alaska and thus the US.

In October 2022, two Russians took advantage of the immediate vicinity, setting off from Russia in a small boat and crossed over to St. Lawrence Island, which belongs to Alaska, to avoid being conscripted into the army to fight in Ukraine.

Not the first historic meeting in Alaska

Trump and Putin will discuss this very war in Anchorage, Alaska, though without any Ukrainian representatives present, despite the fact that Ukraine is under attack from Russia. This is not, meanwhile, the first time a foreign head of state is hosted by a US president in Anchorage. In September 1971, Japanese Emperor Hirohito landed here on his first ever trip abroad. After a meeting with US President Richard Nixon, he traveled on to London, Bonn and Paris.

Putin, however, is unable to travel to Great Britain, Germany, or France as he would likely be arrested and extradited as the International Criminal Court in The Hague put out an international arrest warrant for the Russian leader. But as the US does not recognize the court, Putin has nothing to fear in Alaska.

Correction: A previous version of this article said Alaska was sold to the US in the mid-18th century. It has been corrected to the mid-19th century. DW apologizes for the error.

This article was originally written in German.