One of the last U.S. states to join the union should be the first in line for a Russian attack according to a Kremlin propagandist.
Retired general Andrey Gurulyov, a State Duma deputy, raised the possibility of Moscow attacking the territory that the U.S. purchased from the Russian government in 1867 for $7.2 million in a deal confirmed by the Treaty of Cession.
He discussed with TV anchor Vladimir Solovyov the war in Ukraine and the consequences of the incursion into Russia’s Belgorod oblast, near the border with Ukraine, by anti-Kremlin groups.
Moscow has claimed to have destroyed the groups, which were said to be comprised of the Russian Volunteer Corps and the Freedom of Russia Legion.
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As the conversation on Solovyov’s radio show Full Contact touched on Western support for Kyiv, such as American-made F-16 fighter jets, Gurulyov started spitballing some ideas of how Moscow could wrest back the initiative in its fight with the West.
Lamenting how Russia was always on the backfoot and “constantly responding to threats,” he accused the West of continuously escalating with provisions of weapons such as Javelins, HIMARS, long range missiles and now F-16s.
“It would be nice if we set the tone ourselves,” Gurloyov said in the clip tweeted by journalist and Russia watcher Julia Davis. He then described how strikes with tactical nuclear weapons against command centers, airfields and so on, would “paralyze” Ukraine. “Then a totally different conversation will start,” he said.
Solovyov then weighed in, wondering what might happen “if Ukraine hit Moscow with a nuclear bomb” which he said would be welcomed by the U.S. This prompted Surulyov to suggest that Russia needed to directly threaten American territory.
“Alaska is the closest U.S. territory to Russia,” he said. “We can target Alaska with everything imaginable, having increased our tactical nuclear potential without involving strategic nuclear forces.”
“There will be nothing left of Alaska,” he added.
Alaska may be separated from Russia by the Bering Strait, but the state which in 1959 became the 49th to join the union, has been a focus for Kremlin propagandists and Russian officials.
In July 2022, in the teeth of tough U.S. sanctions caused by Vladmir Putin’s full-scale invasion, Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of the Russian parliament’s lower house, suggested Moscow still had a claim on the state. “Let America always remember—there is a part of its territory that is Russia—Alaska,” he said. Soon afterwards, Russian media outlets reported how billboards proclaiming “Alaska Is Ours!” were spotted in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk.