and the funny thing is, he was just trolling.. lol those wacky farkers..
Posted on 11/28/2005 10:42:49 AM PST by DogBarkTree
Moscow (CNSNews.com) - It may have been a joke, but some media organizations and politicians in Moscow appear to have taken half-seriously a satirical suggestion that the United States should sell Alaska back to Russia for $1 trillion.
The tongue-in-cheek proposal published in a U.S. newspaper raised the vague notion still present here that Russia could one day retrieve the territory it sold to the U.S.
The return of Alaska would be marked by a great national holiday, said Vladimir Zhirinovsky, an outspoken nationalist politician.
Russia would then have a presence on three continents -- Europe, Asia and America -- noted Zhirinovsky, who is deputy speaker of the lower house of parliament.
Last Wednesday, the Washington Post ran a satirical commentary entitled, "Alaska Would Be More at Home in Russia."
Business columnist Steven Pearlstein came up with what he called a "dynamite plan -- one that would cut the federal deficit and the debt, heal a major rift within the body politic, and restore some sanity to the annual appropriations process."
According to Pearlstein, "The timing couldn't be better ... as Russia is flush with $50 billion in petrodollars it doesn't know how to invest." The commentary added that "with the Kremlin still smarting about losing all those unpronounceable republics, Alaska would be just the sort of strategic acquisition to appeal to President Putin's imperial instincts."
Pearlstein wrote that Alaskans, free from the political grip of environmentalists, would finally be able to drill and fish to their heart's content.
Russia's state-run Channel One television described the idea as a "plan to solve American problems" in exchange for Russian money.
The network conceded that the article was a joke, but even so, it dispatched staff to interview New Yorkers about the "dynamite plan."
Some Russian media outlets appeared to have taken the article half-seriously. The Novye Izvestia daily headlined its report, "The U.S. has drafted a plan: to sell Alaska back to Russia."
Alaska has become a burden for the U.S., wrote the centrist daily, Trud.
The fate of Alaska, nicknamed Russian America, has long been an affront to Russian national pride.
Vitus Bering, a Danish sea captain serving in the Russian Fleet, and captain Alexey Chirikov claimed Alaska after discovering it in 1741.
The Russians established a commercial entity, the Russian-American Company, to capitalize on their new possession.
During the Crimean War, British and French fleets attacked and burned Petropavlovsk, the Alaska colony's supply point. As Russia's hold on the territory was threatened, Russian diplomats opted to sell it to friendly Americans than risk having it seized by British foes.
Another reason for the sale was that in the 1860s the Russian-American Company was making significant financial losses, thus becoming a burden for the Russian state coffers. After Alaska was sold to the U.S., the company holdings were liquidated.
The U.S. bought Alaska in 1867 for $7.2 million -- or two cents an acre. The move drew criticism in Russia over the loss of territory, and also in the United States, where the wisdom of public spending on an "ice box" was questioned.
During the Soviet era, rumor persisted here that Alaska had not been sold at all, but was instead leased to the U.S. for a 99- or 150-year period -- a theory not backed up by any historical evidence.
The speculation was partly based on the fact that following the 1917 Russian Revolution, the communist government renounced all previous laws and international treaties concluded by the Czarist government, including the Alaska sale.
They'd drill on ANWR in a heartbeat and I doubt any of their citizens would care. It would almost be funny to see what the Greenies would do.
Now there is an idea with merit...
Sell Alaska with one condition. Ted "The road to nowhere" Stevens goes with the sale
I think they spelled T-U-R-D wrong.
Communist- Democrat, what's the difference?
LOL!
Ouch! In your defence, internet investments weren't doing so well at the time. It made investors jumpy.
One trillion dollars would be far too little. One hundred trillion dollars might do it. As soon as they get done paying, we'll deed it over.
You know why I sold it? Because a cousin of mine who supposedly is a "financial wiz" (according to my Aunt) told me "It will go down, it is just a search engine, search engines are on their way out.. you should short it"..
I figure right now that stock if I just held it would have been worth about a quarter mill and more being that it seems to be heading towards $500 now. Isn`t that amazing, listening to one fool cost me about $250 grand, and if you remember the first lesson of the stock market, it is don`t listen to ANYBODY!
I just knew that thing was going to take off which is why I bought it. It came off the IPO, went up then down on fears and I just knew that was the opportune time to buy and I was right on target more than I could have imagined. Can you imagine these people who bought 1000 shares and above at $100? I remember when I bought seeing some guy on Scottrade buy 10k shares. That`s a million bucks at $100 and now he is up (if he held it) to $4 million in ONE YEAR and will most likely see $5 mill by the end of `05. $4 million bucks profit in one freggin` year on just 10k shares.
Let's keep the mineral rights...
So soon we'll be calling you thackneyevski?
Ten years ago, I was talking to a neighbor that had homesteaded his place before WWII. I asked him what was the biggest change he saw in Alaska over the years. He said most Alaskans were becomming plain old Americans demanding more government and control. He said the socialism created from all the oil wealth has ruined the place for the future. Not what I expected to hear from him but probably alot of truth to it.
Maybe Israel's interested.
Imagine if Alaska was part of Russia during the Cold War...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.