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Russian State TV Wants Moscow to Conquer Three US States

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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."

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  • All of these locations (Alaska, California, Hawaii, much of eastern Europe) are ones that Russia has at one point in its imperial or soviet history had either outposts or territorial claim to. Of course, much of Eastern Europe was as recently as the 1980s under the Kremlin's direct control, either as puppet states or as territory Russia or the USSR directly claimed. Finland and Poland in particular have both been completely invaded by Russian forces multiple times, but at the moment they are built up defensively in ways that Russia quite honestly has zero chances of winning against.

    Alaska was territory that imperial Russia claimed before any European country did. It was sold to the US during the Crimean war (1853) because Russia needed the money and in all likelihood it was going to lose it to Britain. Russia established early trading outposts in Alaska and California but sold or abandoned them after wiping out the fur animals they'd come to harvest and trade.

    This talk for the benefit of Russian audiences is about reminding Russians of former imperial or soviet glory, but the problem with that historically is that it wasn't actually glorious.

    The current propaganda push to get Russians thinking they really have a shot at rolling back the map changes since Imperial times is just an effort to sustain Russia's modern project: dismantling the post-WWII order in which the West (the US, in particular, but NATO and much of the UN) upholds alliances that Putin sees as against Russia's interests.

  • 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.


    The original article contains 503 words, the summary contains 187 words. Saved 63%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

  • How many states do the Republicans control again?

    MFW I'm waiting to see which set of oligarchs wins control of the country.

  • We'll give you Florida, Oklahoma, and Texas. Final offer.

  • Some random guest on Russian state TV wants that, according to a translation done by a Ukrainian. Newsweek then goes with "Russian State TV wants", implying endorsement of the idea by the Russian government.

    Can you imagine if random Fox News guests were quoted as if they spoke for us? Obviously bullshit, right. That's what this is. Nothing on Russian TV can be taken at face value.

    And it wasn't the host of the program that called it wishful thinking, it was the random guest himself only seconds later. Watch the video clip in the tweet embedded in the article to see it.

    Trash journalism, Newsweek. But they knew it'd get clicks because apparently I'm the only person here who spent 25 seconds to watch the video and another 25 seconds to think. We need do better than this, people.

    The real interesting bit is the "We'll clean them", salivating about ethnic cleansing of all non-Russians. It was a different voice than the guest - I think THAT might have been the host but I can't tell as I don't recognize the people involved.

    • To sum up:

      1. Russian TV airs some bullshit.
      2. Ukrainian propagandist carefully selects a tiny segment, puts it into whatever context suits him. Provides translation which no one checks.
      3. US rag misquotes segment and misattributes statements.
      4. We sound off on social media.

      Bullshit from start to finish.

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