Russian Foreign Minister Arrives in Alaska Wearing Soviet Union ‘CCCP’ Shirt

(Screengrab via X)

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov touched down in Anchorage on Thursday wearing a white “CCCP” sweater – the Soviet-era Cyrillic spelling of USSR – ahead of Russia-Ukraine peace talks with President Donald Trump.

Speaking to Russian state television Rossiya-24, Lavrov stressed Moscow’s readiness for the talks but declined to predict an outcome.

“We know that we have arguments, a clear and understandable position,” he said. “We will set them out.”

The summit’s groundwork was reportedly laid last week during special envoy Steve Witkoff’s trip to Moscow, which Lavrov called a “useful conversation.”

But the CCCP sweater created some buzz across social media and drew immediate attention from some prominent MAGA influencers:

Peter Jukes, executive editor of British newspaper the Byline Times, read the move as a taunt, posting on X: “Putin isn’t hiding his imperial ambitions.”

Alaska, where the talks will take place, is separated from Russia by just three miles of water, the Bering Strait. The U.S. acquired the territory in the 1867 Alaska Purchase from Russian Tsar Alexander II, known at the time as “Seward’s Folly.”

For Moscow’s top diplomat, the choice of attire could be read as trolling, a sartorial provocation to American audiences, or perhaps a message to his own domestic base.

Whether the stunt stiffens or softens the coming negotiations remains to be seen, but social media is certainly reading into it.

Watch above via X.