Two Russian nationals were detained by the US Coast Guard on Tuesday after local officials in the village of Gambell on St Lawrence Island in the Bering Strait said the men had landed at their town and informed villagers they were fleeing conscription into Putin’s army, Alaska’s News Source reports. The men said they’d sailed about 300 miles from the Siberian coastal city of Egvekinot.
“These two individuals that came over from Russia in a boat and were detained in Gambell, my understanding is, they are in Anchorage now being dealt with by federal authorities,” said Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy said. “We don’t anticipate a continual stream of individuals or a flotilla of individuals. We have no indication that’s going to happen, so this may be a one-off,” Dunleavy added, as if other Russians don’t also own boats. America now joins the long list of countries neighboring Russia seeing military age men fleeing near certain death on the business end of American supplied artillery and drone missiles in Ukraine. Not sure if that’s worse than drowning in the Bering Sea in December as no doubt at least a few will if others see these two guys granted asylum.