Way back in 1991, as the once-mighty Soviet Union disintegrated and Westerners cheered, Vladimir Putin’s favorite rock and roll band released “Don’t Fool Around, America,” a patriotic hit about an even older lost cause – Russia’s 1867 sale of Alaska to the United States.
This bouncy, accordion-driven single ignored the disorienting collapse of the Soviet dictatorship and instead pointed listeners east, 2.4 miles across the Bering Strait, to the 49th U.S. state, demanding:
“Give us our dear Alaska back/Give us our dear native land.”
Now the song, by rabble-rousing rockers Lyuba (the Loud Ones), has taken on new significance as President Donald Trump prepares to host Vladimir Putin at an Alaskan military base – and conspiracy theories resurface claiming Uncle Sam swindled Mother Russia out of the 665,000-square-mile Arctic jewel.
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