No use USA!!

Lower thirds:

00:02 Report by Ralph Martin

Script:

SOT Trump   RWNE_20250811_6460
'It's going to be a big thing, we're going to Russia, it's going to be a big deal.'

((beauty pix))  RWNE_20250809_6059
US President Donald Trump's actually headed to the US state of Alaska - which USED to be part of Russia. It's quite close by the old country.

:17 ((Map))
Alaska was a Russian colony until 1867, when the government sold it to the US for 7.2 million dollars - or just a bit more than 150 million dollars today. ((ZOOM)) During the Cold War, the USSR and the USA found themselves uncomfortably close to each other. The Diomedes islands in the Bering Strait  are separated by just a few kilometers - and the International Date Line.

:45 AFP_20250811_VIDI699X3KH_EN
Alaska isn't much closer to Moscow than flying to Washington, DC. But its status as former Russian territory makes it SYMBOLICALLY more neutral for Russian President Vladimir Putin, compared to a trip to the US capital. And Donald Trump gets to play host at an air base at the far edge of the US.

1:08 ((X post)) EBU_20250809_10327925
Putin's foreign investment envoy played up the location in a social media post, declaring that the two countries could go from 'Yesterday to tomorrow in peace'. Another Putin aide said his boss and Trump will discuss economic cooperation in Alaska and the Arctic. 

1:24 ((putin working)) RWNE_20250807_5587
Another bonus for Putin: Alaska is a safe space, not subject to the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, which has indicted him for war crimes. 

((beauty shots))    AFP_20250808_VIDI696E86A_EN
The beautiful setting may not make for easy talks, however - Russia has thwarted Trump's desires for a quick peace deal on Ukraine before. 

END