After Crimea, Russians Say They Want Alaska Back By Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber Apr. 01 2014 00:00 Last edited 19:49 Wikicommons A Russian Orthodox monastery sits near the coast of Alaska’s Spruce Island, which the Church has laid claim to. A mere four kilometers separate Russia's Big Diomede Island from Alaska's Little Diomede Island in the Bering Strait. This boundary between two feuding powers — known as the "Ice Curtain" during the Cold War — is likely the only place from which former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin could really see Russia. But after Russia's annexation of Crimea, which the Kremlin said corrected a "historical mistake," some in Russia would like to see the divide with Alaska eliminated by having Russia stake a new claim on the territory, which Tsar Alexander II sold to the U.S. for $7.2 million in 1867. Amid growing anti-Americanism in Russia following the imposition of U.S. sanctions, Russian officials and pro-Kremlin j
