Putin’s top diplomat Sergei Lavrov mocks Trump with USSR sweatshirt just after Russians arrive in Alaska

ANCHORAGE, ALASKA: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov appeared to make a pointed statement as he arrived in Alaska for high-level talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump on Friday, August 15.

Lavrov stepped off the plane wearing a sweater emblazoned with the inscription “CCCP” — the Cyrillic abbreviation for USSR — a move seen by many as echoing Russian propaganda about reclaiming Alaska during negotiations over the war in Ukraine.

Sergei Lavrov’s arrival stirs Cold War memories in Alaska

The USSR, or the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, existed from 1922 until its dissolution in 1991.

It was a transcontinental nation spanning much of Eurasia, with Moscow as its capital. The bloc included Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, along with Russia and Ukraine.

Alaska, once part of the Russian Empire, was sold to the United States in 1867 for $7.2 million under President Andrew Johnson. It became a state in 1959, though some Russians have long been taught the myth that the territory was wrongfully taken.

Donald Trump teased business with Vladimir Putin in 'high-stakes' Alaska meeting 

On board Air Force One, Trump praised "smart guy," Putin and teased about doing business, “I noticed he’s bringing a lot of business people from Russia, and that’s good."

"I like that because they want to do business, but they’re not doing business until we get the war solved,” Trump said aboard Air Force One.

He said, “If we make progress, I would discuss it, because that’s one of the things that they would like; they’d like to get a piece of what I built in terms of the economy.”

Before that, he posted a two-word Truth Social post, "High Stakes."

Critics link Sergei Lavrov’s sweatshirt to imperial ambitions

Sergei Lavrov's intentional statement was viewed by critics as reflecting Russian propagandists' imperial ambitions and their stance on Ukraine and Alaska as well.

“The ‘USSR’ writing on the Russian foreign minister's sweatshirt speaks of the current Russian sense of state inferiority and is, in fact, a public statement about Russia's imperial ambitions, demonstrating the desire to return to the past and revive the USSR,” posted Anton Gerashchenko, former adviser to the Internal Affairs Minister of Ukraine, on X.

“Bloody hell. Lavrov arrives in Alaska with T-shirt with CCCP, the Cyrillic letters for the USSR. In other words when the Baltic states and Ukraine and the Central Asian republics were under Moscow’s control. If this is a statement of intent, it’s quite something,” wrote Jon Sopel.

One reaction on X read, “Nobody takes taco seriously.”

Internet says Russians are 'laughing at America’

Former Lithuanian foreign minister Gabrielius Landsbergis mocked the display, writing, “‘Just give us half of Ukraine and we promise we will stop,’ says negotiator wearing USSR sweatshirt.”

“This is how much the Russians respect Trump. The Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov turns up to the ‘Negotiations’ with Trump in a fucking USSR T-Shirt. The Russians are laughing at America and the West,” one X post read.

“Lavrov mocks the Americans right in their own backyard by showing up wearing a t-shirt that says CCCP (USSR). If Trump doesn't react, America will become the world's laughingstock (even more than it already is),” another wrote.

“Makes sense of Trump’s ‘Leningrad’ Freudian slip. He’s firmly allied to CCCP aspirations,” said one.

“Sums it up, really. Lavrov is evil,” another user wrote.

Pro-Kremlin commentators seemed delighted with the apparent trolling.

“This is apparently a hint that the Russian army is making chicken Kyiv cutlets out of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Putin and Trump should make a chicken Kyiv out of (Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelensky,” pro-Putin commentator Sergei Markov wrote on Telegram, adding that “both journalists in Russia and Putin and Lavrov have a good sense of humor.”

Gabrielius Landsbergis, Lithuania’s former foreign minister, told CNN Russia will “use all occasions to humiliate the US, the West and Ukraine,” now it has been given a platform on the “world stage.” He added: “But we will cringe through it.”

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