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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Pjotr Sauer

Otter pelts, Orthodox priests and a $7.2m bargain: how Russia sold Alaska to the US

black and white photo of the town of Stika with snowy mountains in the background
Sitka from Baronov Castle in Alaska in 1894. Photograph: Royal Geographical Society/Getty Images

Donald Trump appeared to confuse geography and history on Monday, saying on television that he planned to meet Vladimir Putin “in Russia” on Friday for their much-anticipated, high-stakes summit.

It was the latest in a series of verbal slip-ups by the US president – though had he made it a little over a century and a half earlier, it would have been true.

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