Emperor Alexander II instructed the Russian minister to the United States, Eduard de Stoeckl, to enter into negotiations with U.S.' William Seward in the beginning of March 1867 to sell Russia's Alaska to the U.S.
The negotiations concluded after an all-night session with the signing of the treaty at 4 a.m. on March 30, 1867, with the purchase price set at $7.2 million, or about 2 cents per acre.
But Valdimir Putin, the new Czar of Russia said that because his predecessor was "swindled" Alaska is not really a part of the U.S.
Whether Russians would enter the area in order to protect a hundred or so Russian-speaking Alaskans, as they are now doing in Eastern Ukraine, is not clear.
