Putin Floats $1B Price Tag for Greenland, Shrugs Off Trump Bid as ‘None of Our Business’

Russian President Vladimir Putin publicly shrugged off President Donald Trump’s Greenland ambitions on Wednesday as “none of our business,” while also floating a price tag for the territory at $1 billion.

Speaking at a televised meeting of Russia’s National Security Council, Putin dismissed his interest in Trump’s renewed push to bring Greenland under U.S. control, even as the president frames the move as a defense against Russian and Chinese influence in the Arctic.

“What happens to Greenland is none of our business,” he said. “It certainly doesn’t concern us. I think they’ll sort it out among themselves.”

In a jab at Denmark, he added: “Incidentally, Denmark has always treated Greenland as a colony and has been quite harsh, if not cruel, towards it. But that’s a different matter entirely, and I doubt anyone’s interested in it right now.”

He added that Denmark had sold the U.S. Virgin Islands to Washington in 1917 in exchange for recognizing its ownership of Greenland, and that Russia itself offloaded Alaska to the U.S. in 1867.

Putin then speculated that Greenland could be worth $1 billion, according to Reuters, a price he said the U.S. could afford.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Wednesday, Trump dialled back earlier threats to use tariffs against European allies resisting his bid as leverage over Greenland and ruled out the use of force, demanding instead a movement toward “immediate negotiations.”

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