A Biden administration official laughed off a question claiming Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree that his country's sale of Alaska to the U.S. was "illegitimate."
Putin on Thursday indeed signed an order pertaining to the management of Russian Federation property abroad, Snopes reported.
Pro-Ukrainian social media accounts claimed the Russian president used the decree to declare the 1867 Russian sale of Alaska to the U.S. as being illegal.
English translation of the decree, however, did not mention Alaska specifically.
Still, some pro-Russian bloggers used the decree as foundation for saying Moscow was aiming to reverse territorial losses, Newsweek reported.
During a press conference Monday, U.S. State Department principal deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel was asked about Putin signing an order that declared the sale of Alaska "illegitimate."
"I speak for all of us in the U.S. government to say that certainly, he is not getting it back," Patel said, a response that generated laughter.
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev also joked about Moscow's purported claim on Alaska.
"According to a State Department representative, Russia is not getting back Alaska, which was sold to the U.S. in the 19th century," Medvedev posted Monday afternoon on X.
"This is it, then. And we've been waiting for it to be returned any day. Now war is unavoidable (face with tears of joy emoji)"
The decree Putin signed allocates funds for the search, registration, and legal protection of Russian property abroad, including property in the former territories of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, Newsweek said.
Such territories would include Alaska, large parts of eastern and central Europe, central Asia, and Scandinavia.
Russian ultranationalist bloggers seized on the order to call for fresh aggression against countries that now control once-Russian land.
One prominent Russian pro-war blogger said the decree was a step toward territorial conflicts with Russian neighbors.
"We suggest starting with Alaska," the Two Majors Telegram channel wrote.
Putin previously downplayed the sale of Alaska, calling the deal "inexpensive" and said people should "not get worked up about" the event.
Reclaiming once-owned land has been one of Putin's aims in Russia's repeated aggression against Ukraine during the past decade.
The Russian Empire transferred Alaska to the U.S. for a sum of $7.2 million in 1867. That sum was equivalent to $125 million in 2022.
At the time, opponents to the acquisition, believing the U.S. had acquired useless land, labeled the purchase as "Seward's Folly." That was in reference to then-Secretary of State William Seward.