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."
"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."
Lets say Russia magically is able to land on US soil completely intact after passing through the US Navy infested waters of the Atlantic or the Pacific. Lets just assume they can so we can continue this crazy thought experiment.
To take territory you need boots on the ground, troops, tanks, APCs, etc. These are transported by troop transport aircraft and large ships that are naval landing craft. For Russia that would be the Ropucha-class. Each of these ships can carry about 10 tanks and about 310 troops (per ship).
So how many of these ship does Russia have? Hundreds, right? Nope: 11. Thats it. So assuming a full load of every ship thats about 110 tanks and about 3500ish troops. And all of that assumes all 11 ships will make it alive to US soil.
This is just how crazy this Russian claim of taking US States is.
I could absolutely see Turnip Dump willingly "trade" those states to Russia to get something else in return, if he won a 2nd term as President.
That is to say, he would float the idea to see the response, then say he wouldn't do it, then turn around and do it anyway.
People who are saying "that would never happen," answer me this: what happened on 1/6/21? Specifically what happened with a confederate flag in the Capitol building? Something you thought would never happen?
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.
Anyone taking this seriously should think again. Of course Russia isn't going to invade the US, it would be suicide on too many levels to count. This is just posturing to tile up their own base, get people to still believe in the supposed might of mother Russia.
It's the same bullshit coming from the Republican party as well
"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."
OAKLAND — President Donald Trump on Thursday blamed California for its raging wildfires and threatened to withhold federal money, reprising his attacks from previous rounds of catastrophic blazes.
“I see again the forest fires are starting,” he said at a rally in swing-state Pennsylvania. “They’re starting again in California. I said, you gotta clean your floors, you gotta clean your forests — there are many, many years of leaves and broken trees and they’re like, like, so flammable, you touch them and it goes up.”
He was invoking his famous comments from 2018, when he visited the remnants of Paradise, a California town that suffered the state’s deadliest and most destructive fire. Back then, he pointed to Finland, claiming its leader said the European “forest nation” had “spent a lot of time on raking and cleaning and doing things. And they don’t have any problem.”
Finnish President Sauli Niinistö later said he told Trump that Finland takes care of its forests but did not say anything about raking, according to CNN.
I'm getting some decidedly conflicting messages here on the relative cleanliness of California and Finland.
I’d love to see Putin spend a week in the wrong part of Los Angeles and have his a__ handed to him by some Mexican American gang, or black gang. You want California, dude? As a white (non-Russian) living here, I have had gangs threatened to shoot me about five times now, because I accepted a job assignment in an area they considered to be their turf.
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.
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Best we can do is Montana, but we would like to flatten all of Russia first. That's a deal that even ruzzia's Zantanya would probably agree with. Mexico's Santana took the deal LOL 🤣. I'm from Mexico and I can tell you it's in the history books. It would be cool if you guys had your very own Zantanya chapter. Plus once the tree of you left move to new risky (former Montana) you would probably feel right at home.
Hey you said you got lithium and germanium? Yeah sounds like a good deal!
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.