Sentiment toward Russia in Alaska has cooled since Putin invaded Ukraine in 2022. The Anchorage Assembly voted unanimously to suspend its three-decade-long sister city relationship with Magadan, Russia, and the Juneau Assembly sent its sister city of Vladivostok a letter expressing concern.

WASHINGTON (AP) — In an ironic twist, President Donald Trump is set to discuss the war in Ukraine with Russian leader Vladimir Putin at a military base in Alaska that was crucial to countering the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War and still plays a role today.

President Richard M. Nixon and Emperor Hirohito of Japan meet Sept. 26, 1971, in Anchorage, in the home of Gen. Robert George Ruegg, commander in chief of the Alaskan Command at Elmendorf Air Force Base. It was the first-ever meeting of a U.S. president and a Japanese monarch. (Anchorage Times photo)