A White House official has confirmed to Sky News that the meeting between the US President Donald Trump and Russia's counterpart Vladimir Putin on Friday will take place at the Elmendorf-Richardson military base.
The base is the largest in Alaska and combines the Air Force's Elmendorf base and the Army's Fort Richardson. More than 32,000 people live there, according to the Washington Post, about 10 percent of the population of the nearby city of Anchorage.
According to the US Congress Library, Elmendorf-Richardson was particularly important during the Cold War.
Russia sold Alaska to the US in 1867, and the decision to now hold talks about the Ukraine war precisely there has been met with some criticism.
It is easy to imagine that Putin during his meetings with Trump will raise the argument: See, territories can change owners, says Nigel Gould-Davies, former British ambassador to Belarus, to Sky News and continues:
”We gave you Alaska. Why can't Ukraine give us part of its territory?”
