Anchorage, a city of about 300,000 people, has rarely drawn this much attention in modern history. After Washington and Moscow announced the summit, no hotel rooms remained available in the city, where accommodation was already strained by the height of the tourist season.
Even the U.S. Secret Service reportedly faced difficulties finding places to stay. Journalists traveling in Vladimir Putin’s press pool said after arriving in Anchorage that they had been housed overnight in a stadium converted into a temporary shelter. In their description, it resembled the COVID period, with cots and partition screens.
At the same time, other Russian reporters looked for material in souvenir shops, an Orthodox church, the Pel' Meni restaurant, and a tourist information center, where they asked about local bears. They also quoted unnamed representatives of Alaska’s Indigenous peoples who, according to those reports, greeted РИА Новости journalists with statements about loving Putin, loving Russians, and being “brothers.”
Meanwhile, Russian state media largely ignored the mass protests that drew hundreds of local residents in those days. People joined marches and demonstrations carrying Ukrainian flags and signs reading “Putin is a war criminal” and “Alaska stands with Ukraine.”
The rallies took place not only in Anchorage itself but across the state. Their titles reflected their message directly: “Rage Against Putin and Trump in Alaska,” “We Support Ukraine! War Criminals Are Not Welcome in Alaska!” and “Arrest Vladimir Putin.”