Alaska wants to increase border security
Russians flee to the United States by boat
10/07/2022 12:16 p.m
To escape the war in Ukraine, two Russians fled by boat to the neighboring US island of St. Lawrence and applied for asylum there. After the incident, Alaska alerted the Coast Guard and demanded more protection in securing the national border.
Two Russians arrived by boat on an Alaskan island and applied for asylum in the United States. This was announced by Alaska Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan. To According to the newspaper “Anchorage Daily News” The two Russian citizens have already been flown out of St. Lawrence Island in the Arctic Bering Sea and taken to Alaska’s largest city, Anchorage, according to Governor Mike Dunleavy.
Alaska’s Senator Dan Sullivan wants to better protect the borders with Russia.
(Photo: picture alliance / ZUMAPRESS.com)
The incident illustrates two things, Senator Sullivan said in the statement: “First, the Russian people do not want to fight Putin’s war of aggression against Ukraine. Second, given Alaska’s proximity to Russia, our state has a vital role in America’s national security to guarantee.” The two Republicans criticized the lack of presence of federal forces such as the Coast Guard in their state and called for more support from the US government in securing the state border.
Washington must urgently prioritize capacities in the Arctic, such as infrastructure and defense forces. Border Patrol and the Coast Guard must have a ready plan in place in case “more Russians flee to the Bering Strait communities in Alaska,” Sullivan said. Alaska, as the northernmost US state, only has a land border with Canada, but with its many islands it borders on Russian sea territory.
St. Lawrence Island is even closer to the coast of eastern Russia’s Chukotka region than it is to mainland Alaska. The two men told island residents that they had left the eastern Russian city of Egvekinot, the news portal Alaska’s News Source reported. They would have covered more than 250 nautical miles in the Bering Sea.