Traveling Between Mainland Alaska and Russia The nearest points between mainland Alaska and Russia are the western tip of Cape Prince of Wales in Alaska and the Southern point of Cape Dezhnev in Russia — with a distance of roughly 55 miles (88.5 kilometers) between the two points.

While many people think of Alaska and Russia as being thousands of miles apart, they are geographically incredibly close. At the narrowest point of the Bering Strait, the distance between the mainland of Alaska (Seward Peninsula) and the mainland of Russia (Chukotka Peninsula) is approximately 55 miles (88 kilometers). However, the truly high-fidelity "close encounter" happens in the middle of the strait at the Diomede Islands. The distance between Little Diomede (U.S.) and Big Diomede (Russia) is only 2.4 miles (3.8 kilometers). During the winter, an ice bridge can sometimes form between the two, though walking across is strictly prohibited and physically dangerous due to shifting floes. This narrow gap is also home to the International Date Line; if you stand on Little Diomede and look at Big Diomede, you are literally looking from "today" into "tomorrow." Despite this high-fidelity geographic proximity, the political and infrastructural gap between the two nations remains vast, with no bridges or tunnels currently connecting these two global superpowers in 2026.