Persistent Alaskan and Russian “citizen-diplomats” helped end the Cold War in the Bering Strait region in the 1980s, launching a thirty-year era of prolific progress. They established joint businesses and cultural ties and about a dozen Alaska communities established sister-city agreements with their Russian counterparts. Today under President Putin, much of that progress has eroded as US and Russia relationships deteriorate. David Ramseur, author of “Melting the Ice Curtain: The Extraordinary Story of Citizen Diplomacy on the Russia-Alaska Frontier,” will examine the heyday of Alaska-Russian relations and the new growing Cold War between the US and Russia.

A 46-year Alaskan, David Ramseur worked for Governors Steve Cowper and Tony Knowles and U.S. Senator Mark Begich. He has traveled to Russia more than a dozen times since his first visit on the 1988 “Friendship Flight.” A former journalist, Ramseur serves as the Alaska Historical Society’s president and newsletter editor. He holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of North Carolina Ashville and a master’s in journalism from the University of Missouri.

Cook Inlet Historical Society Presents: The Re-Freeze Of The Alaska-Russia Ice Curtain