Russian President Vladimir Putin laid flowers at the Heroes of ALSIB memorial in Magadan on 15 August, marking a rare public tribute to U.S.–Soviet cooperation during World War II just hours before his planned summit with U.S. President Donald Trump in Alaska. The monument honors the Alaska–Siberia air route, part of the Lend-Lease program that ferried almost 8,000 American aircraft to the Red Army; more than 100 Soviet pilots died flying the perilous Arctic corridor. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin intends to place flowers at a related memorial in Fairbanks after the talks, framing the wartime alliance as symbolic groundwork for the leaders’ first bilateral meeting in a decade.