President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia may arrive to a somewhat chilly reception in Alaska next week, as the state that has long made efforts to deepen and even celebrate its ties to the country has soured on its neighbor across the Bering Sea.
President Trump said on Friday that he would meet with Mr. Putin on Aug. 15 in Alaska, in an attempt to secure a deal to end the war between Russia and Ukraine. Mr. Trump had earlier suggested that a peace deal between the two countries could include “some swapping of territories,” signaling that the United States may join Russia in trying to compel Ukraine to permanently cede some of its land.
David Ramseur, who was an aide to the former Alaska governors Tony Knowles and Steve Cowper, said the setting for the summit is knotty given how the historical “affinity” between Alaskans and Russians has weakened since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Alaska boosters have been pushing for Alaska as an international gateway for basically since statehood,” said Mr. Ramseur, who wrote the book “Melting the Ice Curtain: The Extraordinary Story of Citizen Diplomacy on the Russia-Alaska Frontier.” “So in that sense, it’s good for Alaska. Puts us on the map for a couple of hours.”
Alaska has deep ties to Russian history and culture, dating back to when the Russian Empire first colonized the region in the 18th century. Since the United States purchased the land in 1867, Russian-speaking communities have stayed in the state, and Russian Orthodox Churches, with their distinct onion-shaped domes, can be found from the remote Aleutian Islands to Anchorage, Alaska’s largest city.
“Russian culture and Russian history is sort of baked into Alaska,” said Brandon Boylan, a professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks who has researched Alaska’s role in U.S.-Russia relations. “There’s a lot of remnants of the Russian American legacy.”
After the end of the Cold War — when Alaska served as a front line of missile defense against the Soviet Union — the state became the center of efforts to deepen ties between the United States and the new Russian Federation, Dr. Boylan said. But the outbreak of war in Ukraine reversed that thaw in relations, he said.
While remarks by Russian political figures about taking back their former American territory have largely “fallen flat,” the war in Ukraine has still alarmed Alaskans and soured feelings toward their western neighbor, Dr. Boylan said.
“If tensions heat up between the U.S. and Russia, I think we’re going to feel it most acutely in Alaska again,” he said.
With the rise of Mr. Putin in the early 2000s, business partnerships and academic collaboration began to falter, Mr. Ramseur said, but tension took hold more deeply with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The Anchorage Assembly suspended its decades-old “sister city” relationship with the Siberian city of Magadan the following year, saying it could not “turn a blind eye to the actions of the Russian government.” But Juneau, the state’s capital, voted to continue a similar relationship with Vladivostok.
Alaska’s position at the junction of Asia and North America has long made it a strategic site for diplomacy, Dr. Boylan said. Most recently, the Biden administration conducted high-level talks with China at the Hotel Captain Cook in Anchorage in 2021.
The White House has not confirmed exactly where the meeting will take place. But Larry Disbrow, a realtor who operates short-term rentals in Anchorage, who is also an honorary consul of Germany, said he has rented a six-bedroom property to the Secret Service for the meeting.
“The U.S. Secret Service contacted me earlier today, and they asked me if I might have availability of any of my places, and I did for the window that they needed,” said Mr. Disbrow, who goes by Beau.
He added: “I could see why Alaska might be an attractive place for something like this, you know, from a historical perspective. But it surprised me, for sure.”
Suzanne LaFrance, Anchorage’s mayor, said in an interview Saturday that she hadn’t received any indication whether her city would host the meeting between Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin.
“Hosting leaders is not unusual for us here in Alaska,” Ms. LaFrance said. “Serving as a place for diplomacy is part of our history, as we are that crossroads of the world.”
Russian influences are prevalent in Anchorage, where a small grocery store chain sells Russian food, and a downtown restaurant, popular with late-night diners, specializes in pelmeni, or Russian dumplings.
Mr. Trump has visited Alaska at least five times since he first took office in 2017, mostly for stops at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage. The meeting with Mr. Putin will make this Mr. Trump’s first official trip to the state since the start of his second term.
The state’s congressional delegation and governor, all Republicans, publicly welcomed the selection of their state for the meeting between Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin.
“For centuries, Alaska has been a bridge between nations, and today, we remain a gateway for diplomacy, commerce and security in one of the most critical regions on earth,” Gov. Mike Dunleavy posted on X on Friday.
Senator Lisa Murkowski said that while she remained “deeply wary of Putin and his regime,” she hoped the talks would help end the war in Ukraine on equitable terms.
Eric Croft, chairman of the Alaska Democratic Party, said that the meeting highlighted Mr. Trump’s failure to fulfill his campaign pledge of ending the war on the first day of his administration.
“We’d love the war in Gaza and Ukraine to be resolved, and stop killing civilians,” Mr. Croft said in an interview on Saturday. “I think most Alaskans are more worried about inflation and cuts to Medicaid and cuts to public radio, but we’ll entertain them if they need it.”
Susan C. Beachy contributed research.