Putin routinely frames the decisions of his "weak" predecessors as unjust and in need of repair. Hence his justification of the invasion of Ukraine leans heavil

Putin routinely frames the decisions of his "weak" predecessors as unjust and in need of repair. Hence his justification of the invasion of Ukraine leans heavily on an ideological foundation that Lenin and Krushchev (and probably Gorbachev->Yeltsin) are to blame for its very existence. He ranted at length about Lenin in his speech on the eve of the invasion, and the talking point that "Crimea isn't Ukrainian it was a gift to them in the Kruschev era!" is all over the place, even by western sympathisers^Wuseful idiots. I imagine he could frame the Alaska scenario in a similar way, though I doubt he'd actually go that far. It's a "might makes right" philosophy. Those predecessors were "wrong" because they were weak, and a strong Russia is "right" or will make things "right" through its inherent superiority.