This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: It was sold in 1867, but some Russians want Alaska back from the U.S.

The Trump-Putin summit will take place in a former Russian colony that the United States bought for $7.2 million in 1867. Here’s how the deal came together and why its legacy matters.

US President Donald Trump was reportedly ready to cut short talks with Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin in Alaska due to Putin's intransigence over his demand to annex the entire Donetsk Oblast. Source: Axios,

Vladimir Putin set foot on U.S. soil for the first time in 10 years on Friday—but don’t try telling President Donald Trump that. In the days leading up to the historic summit between the two world leaders,

United States President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin are set to meet in Anchorage, Alaska, on Friday to discuss how to end the war in Ukraine. On Wednesday, following a virtual meeting with European leaders including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy,

According to UK newspaper The Telegraph, offering Alaskan natural resources to Russia could be part of a peace deal in Ukraine.

Papers bearing U.S. State Department markings and detailing President Donald Trump’s summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin were discovered in the business center of an Anchorage hotel, raising new questions about the handling of sensitive government information.

As Trump and Putin gear up for their Alaska summit, the stage is set for what could be a fresh chapter in US-Russia relations. The high-profile meeting is scheduled to take place at Elmendorf Air Force Base.

The act of meeting and the nature of the interaction were such that the summit did considerable damage to the U.S. and broader western position on Ukraine.