I’ve always wondered why NATO, a Cold War relic built to contain communism, not only survived the collapse of the very empire it was created to oppose, but somehow found new purpose in expanding all the way to Russia’s doorstep. A promise once made, never to move “one inch eastward,” was quietly folded into the archives as the alliance, now more bureaucracy than shield, became the lifeblood of western arms manufacturers and eastern European hawks alike. Yet just as questions about its relevance were growing louder, Putin did exactly what the alliance needed. He invaded Ukraine.

Now the spectacle moves to Alaska, a frozen irony if there ever was one. A former Russian colony sold off by a desperate tsarist regime is about to host a modern-day strongman whom many in the western press describe, with a mix of panic and admiration, as yet another desperate Russian dictator. Only this time, he’s not selling land. He’s allegedly buying time, legitimacy, and influence, on the same soil that Tsar Alexander II sold to Andrew Johnson’s administration for two cents an acre in 1867.

The press is already aflame with warnings. “Putin’s playing chess!” they scream. “Trump will be duped again!” The ghosts of Helsinki 2018 have been summoned in full regalia. Remember that one? When Trump came out of a private meeting with Putin looking like a fanboy, casting doubt on US intelligence and prompting his own adviser to contemplate pulling the fire alarm? The stakes were high then. They’re higher now.

Yet the hysteria may be hiding the real twist.........

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