From buying Alaska for $7.2 million in 1867 to a diesel deal with Putin in October 2026 — every American president who made a real deal with Russia, explained in order. What each side gave, what each side got, and who came out ahead.

Madison and the Tsar, Monroe and the 54°40′ line, the Russian fleet in New York in 1863, Seward's 4 a.m. Alaska treaty, Teddy Roosevelt's Nobel Prize, the forgotten American war in Russia, Lend-Lease and Yalta, the Cuban missile secret, the Great Grain Robbery, Reagan and Gorbachev, "Bush legs", Megatons to Megawatts, the reset button, New START — and the Anchorage summit in the very land Russia once sold us.

Which president made the best deal with Russia — and who got played? Tell us in the comments.

CHAPTERS
0:00 From a Russian fleet to a diesel deal
0:50 James Madison — a friend in Europe (1809)
1:49 James Monroe — the 54°40′ line (1824)
3:00 Abraham Lincoln — the Russian fleet in New York (1863)
4:04 Andrew Johnson — buying Alaska (1867)
5:36 Theodore Roosevelt — the Treaty of Portsmouth (1905)
6:30 1917–1933 — the deal that didn't happen
7:38 FDR — recognition, Lend-Lease, Yalta
9:05 Harry Truman — Potsdam and the Berlin Airlift
9:55 Eisenhower — Khrushchev in America, the U-2
10:54 JFK — the Cuban missile deal and the hotline
12:12 LBJ — Glassboro and the NPT
12:56 Nixon — SALT I and the Great Grain Robbery
13:51 Ford — Vladivostok, Helsinki, Apollo–Soyuz
14:31 Carter — SALT II and the grain embargo
15:19 Reagan — Reykjavik and the INF Treaty
16:36 George H. W. Bush — START I and "Bush legs"
17:30 Clinton — Megatons to Megawatts, Budapest
18:46 George W. Bush — "a sense of his soul"
19:29 Obama — the reset and New START
20:16 Trump (term 1) — Helsinki
20:52 Biden — New START extension, prisoner swaps
21:40 Trump (term 2) — Anchorage and the diesel deal
23:13 The scoreboard: who won, who got played

SOURCES
• Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State — Russia relations (1809, 1933) and Milestones: 1824 treaty, Alaska Purchase, Portsmouth, Lend-Lease, Yalta, Potsdam, Berlin Airlift, U-2, Cuban Missile Crisis, Hotline, Test Ban, NPT, SALT, Helsinki, INF, START
• Avalon Project (Yale Law School) — treaty texts; National Archives — Alaska treaty and the $7.2M warrant
• Nobel Prize — Theodore Roosevelt, Peace 1906
• U.S. State Department — INF Treaty (2,692 missiles eliminated), New START
• NNSA / USEC — Megatons to Megawatts (1993–2013)
• Hoover Institution — American Relief Administration in Russia, 1921–23
• U.S. Grains Council; University of Kansas "Cold War Heartland" — 1972 grain sales
• Federation of American Scientists; Lowy Institute — expiry of New START (Feb 5, 2026)
• Axios, CNBC, NBC News, NPR/AP (Oct 9, 2026) — Trump–Putin diesel deal, Treasury general license to April 2027, Zelensky's reaction

Animated characters are cartoon illustrations; the narrator's voice is AI-generated. Archival photos: see credits below.

PHOTOS (Wikimedia Commons)
Public domain: U.S. National Archives, Library of Congress, White House Photographic Office, NASA, U.S. Navy, U.S. Air Force, Army Signal Corps, Hoover Presidential Library; portraits by John Vanderlyn, Samuel F. B. Morse, John Singleton Copley, George Dawe, Mathew Brady, Alexander Gardner, Harris & Ewing, Pach Bros; Eadweard Muybridge (Sitka, 1868); Tōjō Shōtarō (Tsushima).
CC BY 4.0: Kremlin.ru (Prague 2010, Helsinki 2018, Anchorage 2025, Putin 2023 on the thumbnail); Presidential Press and Information Office (Putin, 2001); Press Service of the President of Ukraine (Zelensky); Larry Bessel (F. G. Powers); Jim Kuhn (teletype).
CC BY 2.0: saintpo2007 (Prudhoe Bay). CC BY-SA 2.0: Raphaël Thiémard (Berlin Wall).
CC BY-SA 3.0: Ansgar Walk (Big Diomede); Laurentgauthier (Höfði House); Yuriy Abramochkin / RIA Novosti (Gorbachev).
CC BY-SA 4.0: "1955 Geneva 'Big 4' Summit"; Lorie Shaull (Brittney Griner); Loewenflausch (Glienicke Bridge); Frank Schulenburg (Fort Ross).