Russian officials began issuing a series of threats to the United States in an effort to fend off the war crimes tribunal, with senior officials suggesting that Russia might be interested in the next hunt for Alaska, which the United States bought from Russia in 1867.
The speaker of Russia’s lower house, Vyacheslav Volodin, has warned that the United States should hesitate when confiscating or freezing Russian assets abroad, and instead should remember that Alaska was once a vassal of Russia.
“Let us always remember America, there is a part of it [Russian] Territory: Alaska Volodin saidAccording to Hromadske. “So when they start trying to dump our resources outside, before they do that, let them think: We also have something to give back.”
Deputy Speaker of the State Duma Pyotr Tolstoy proposed to hold it referendum in AlaskaVolodin said, according to RBC.
Dmitry Medvedev, deputy secretary of the Russian Security Council, took the threats even further, hinting at a nuclear escalation.
“The idea of punishing a country with the greatest nuclear potential is absurd and potentially a threat to the very existence of humanity,” he said, referring to Russia, which maintains more nuclear warheads than any other country, according to the Associated Press.
Medvedev suggested that the United States had not been held accountable for the many bloody confrontations and land grabs themselves, and that it was better not to look at Russia before examining its history.
“The entire history of the United States, since the times of the subjugation of the indigenous Indian population, represents a series of bloody wars,” Medvedev said. “The United States and its useless agents must remember the words of the Bible: You shall not be judged, and you shall not be judged…so that the day of his great wrath may not come to their homes one day.”