The ownership of Wrangel Island to Russia is indisputable, and the proposals for its "return" to the United States are extremist in nature, said Nikolai Korchunov, Ambassador-at-large of the Russian Foreign Ministry, chairman of the Committee of Senior Officials of the Arctic Council.
According to the American journalist Thomas Dance, in 1924 the Soviet Union took the island for itself, sending the gunboat "Red October" there. Before that, Dance believes, Wrangel Island belonged to America.
"Attempts to present territorial claims to Russia, arbitrarily interpreting facts and rewriting history, are obviously counterproductive and fraught with consequences," Korchunov told RIA Novosti.
The Ambassador recalled that Russia has full sovereignty over this northern territory and coastal waters. Korchunov called the proposals coming from American journalists extremist. He also noted that such initiatives "are provocative in nature and are made solely for the purposes of their own PR or outrage."
"We do not think that the authorities in Washington will risk at any serious level to raise the territorial issue in relation to the Russian-American border. The response from our side will be immediate," the diplomat said.
In 1926, a Soviet settlement was founded on Wrangel Island, which was led by the famous Arctic explorer Georgy Ushakov. Two years earlier, the gunboat "Red October" approached the island.
Since October 2014, units of the Eastern Military District have been on duty on Wrangel Island to protect the air borders of Russia. Until the 1990s, there were also military units on the island.
Alex Shishlo for Rough&Polished
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