Two Russians who said they fled the country to avoid compulsory conscription sought asylum in the United States after landing on a remote Alaskan island in the Bering Sea.
This was stated by the office of American Senator Lisa Murkowski.
Murkowski spokeswoman Karina Borger said the office had been in communication with the U.S. Coast Guard and Customs and Border Protection and that Russian citizens reported fled from one of the coastal communities on the east coast of the country. Russia to avoid mandatory mobilization.
"A small boat occupied by two Russian citizens has arrived on the coast of rural Alaska," a spokesman for the Ministry of Internal Security confirmed to AFP on Tuesday.
The case of these two Russians is being examined "in accordance with US immigration laws," he said.
Alaskan Senators, Republicans Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, said the individuals landed on a beach near Gambell, an isolated community of about 600 people on St. Lawrence Island.
The statement does not specify when the incident occurred, although Sullivan said he was notified of the matter on Tuesday morning.
After the incident, Sullivan urged federal authorities "to have a plan ready with the Coast Guard in case other Russians flee to communities in Alaska's Bering Strait."
"We are in contact with federal officials and Gambell residents to determine who these individuals are," added Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski.
According to reports in some local newspapers, the two Russians told the inhabitants of the village of Gambell that they came from Egvekinot, in the north east of Russia, and that they had fled the country.
A spokesman for Sullivan, Ben Dietderich, said the people had arrived by boat.
Gambell is located approximately 320 kilometers southwest of the central western Alaska community of Nome and 58 kilometers from Siberia's Chukotka Peninsula.