Posted on 04/18/2014 6:41:03 AM PDT by McGruff
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday jokingly implied that Alaska wasn't worth reunifying with Russia because it was too cold.
At a nearly four-hour, question-and-answer event, one submitted question for Putin asked if, following the annexation of Crimea, he had designs for the largest of the United States.
“Are there any plans to annex Alaska to Russia? We would be very happy [about that],” said Faina Ivanovna, drawing laughter from the crowd.
“What would you need Alaska for?” Putin said with a smile.
“We are a northern country … 70 percent of our territory is in the north and far north. You think Alaska is in the Southern Hemisphere? It’s quite cold there, too,” Putin said. “Let’s not be overly enthusiastic about it because if we have our people there, we will have to pay extra to our employees there because they live in the north.”
Putin remarked that Russia sold Alaska to the United States in 1867 for $7.2 million in gold, which he said wasn’t that expensive.
A petition on the White House website calls for Alaska to secede from the U.S. and rejoin Russia. Since it was created in late March, nearly 42,500 people have signed it.
In the 19th century, some in the U.S. criticized Secretary of State William Seward's purchase of Alaska, calling it “Seward’s folly.”
Thirty years later, however, a gold rush hit Alaska and it was seen as a valuable addition to the U.S. The sale has since been a sore spot for Russians.
I consider this mean. Your mother, sisters, aunts, wife etc will all get old and gray. Show them your work when you get a chance.
I believe it was a joke and has “0” validity.
Call of the Wild is one of my favorite books about the Alaskan Gold Rush.
Who wants to guess whom Putin respects more—Obama or Palin?
Putin is a reminder that our elections have consequences.
But will the masses get the message?
(I almost typed “massage”, how Freudian)
Just one slight change in your sentence... :0)
“Putin” and “Palin” differ only by two letters.
Is this significant? I don’t know....
Detroit isn’t!
You all can worry about the Russkies. I'm here in the interior and ain't worried about anything except when ice out will happen and when the Kings will arrive.
Too uneducated to care.
The democrat party is loving the Russian distraction from their idiocy. Meanwhile, the big zero in our White House continues to chip away at our Constitution while folks are suckered into the big red herring folly.
And Connecticut is to communist leaning.
I have likewise thought of that, a number of times.
Actually.
It is just a coincidence, but will become an issue of some sort for stand-up comics if Palin is elected in 2016, and Putin is still in power.
(see no sign, that won’t happen)
In fact, I consider it likely.
And put those four letters together and it spells “Tula”, the name of a famous Russian arms factory. Coincidence? I think not.
CC
I have a greater regard for every existing life form on the planet than I do for the loathsome, septic, sewage resembling POS Obamadork.
The man is slime.
Pure slime.
Flush him (it) now...but beware, flush twice, it floats.
He was sending a clear message that he is not interested in a fight with the US.
The discussion of cold is a counterpoint. He is only interested in expanding south. Since that is toward Islam, I say let them focus on one another.
Of course, that says nothing about west, but I’ve stopped caring what happens to Europeans, whatever it is, it’s their problem and they asked for it.
It’s time to return to the Monroe Doctrine.
Alaska is cold:
” There are strange things done in the midnight sun
By the men who moil for gold;
The Arctic trails have their secret tales
That would make your blood run cold;
The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,
But the queerest they ever did see
Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge
I cremated Sam McGee.”
How many taxpaying Alaskans would welcome Russia’s tax laws?
Maybe I’m in the minority here, but I like Putin’s routine. He’s a funny guy. I like it deadpan and ethnic. He’s sort of a younger Jackie Mason.
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