Official representative of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Maria Zakharova at a briefing at the XXV St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2022 (SPIEF) in St. Petersburg. File photoMOSCOW, June 15 Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova ended a discussion about Alaska with a foreign journalist who asked her a question about the situation in Ukraine. On the margins of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), CNN correspondent Fredkrik Pleitgen asked the diplomat a question about the situation in Ukraine and about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s phrase about Peter I and the return of lands by Russia — is not all this a violation of international law. In response, Zakharova advised the journalist to recall the precedents with Kosovo and the US invasion of Iraq and the illegal presence of US troops in Syria. «Ask the State Department a question about this with the same pathos,» Zakharova advised. lasted another ten minutes, during which Zakharova recalled the events that had taken place in the Donbass for eight years; before these events, she noted, the Western media did not care. After that, Zakharova began to answer another question, but stopped and turned to Pleitgen again.
"I finally understood why the CNN representative was so worried. I couldn't understand anything about historical lands. Are you talking about Alaska, or what?" Zakharova mocked.
Alaska was sold to the United States of America under the Russian Emperor Alexander II in 1867. The deal was valued at $7.2 million.