There was a book by Jeffrey Archer called A Matter of Honor that centered on a cat and mouse game between a Soviet agent and a British veteran across France and Switzerland over ownership of a painting containing the deed to the Alaska Purchase, with the idea being that if the Soviet Union could get its hands on it they could legally buy back the state, which America had just installed most of its missile defense system in, but that was just a novel and the more you think about that idea the more ridiculous it becomes.
As far as I know, the Alaska Purchase was a straight up sale, needed by the Russian government to generate funds and also to make sure that Alaska didn't fall into British hands at a time when Russia and the UK were engaged in a Cold War of sorts.
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“Where the longleaf pines are whispering
to him who loved them so.
Where the faint murmurs now dwindling
echo o’er tide and shore."
-A Grave Epitaph in Santa Rosa County, Florida; I wish I could remember the man's name.
That's what I've heard before too, but now there are some voices (weak as for now) claiming that it wasn't a sale but "lease-purchase contract" (i have no idea about american law, but thats most accurate translation of our "dzierżawa" ) for 150 years. Weird.
I don't think it will ever be an issue. Alaska was never an integral part of the Russian Empire and it's been a US state with a relatively large American population since the 1950s. Russia has its hands full just with the Far Eastern territories--even if there was some legal grounds for the territory reverting to their hands they have no stomach for expansion in that direction.
__________________
“Where the longleaf pines are whispering
to him who loved them so.
Where the faint murmurs now dwindling
echo o’er tide and shore."
-A Grave Epitaph in Santa Rosa County, Florida; I wish I could remember the man's name.
It's all rumors of the sale actually being a lease and as pointed out, at this point it would take military action for Russia to claim Alaska and I can't see them wanting an open war with the US.
This sounds like the plot of an old GI Joe cartoon, the idea that there's some overlooked technicality from way back and that somehow anyone would still follow it ^^
KMC Community Forums
Sep 26th, 2014 02:40 PM
