Obviously the distance is too great at sea level, but from an elevation?
Not from the mainland, but the Diomedes are well within 3 miles of each other and are clearly visible from one to the other.
It is 55 miles across Bering Strait from Cape Prince of Wales in Alaska to Cape Dezhnev in Russia. However, it is less than 3 miles from Big Diomede Island (part of Russia) and Little Diomede Island (part of Alaska).
(taken from Yahoo)
You can hopscotch up the coast, north of Nome, in a single engine plane and see Russia fairly easily on a clear day when a few thousand feet up in the air.
The Alaska Airmen used to sponsor a cross-Bering strait flight each year. I always wanted to do it, but never got around to it.
Go to
And you will see Wales airport in the colorful sectional chart a ways down, on the right side. Click on it, and then use the slide bar to telescope out. You can see Russian land on the left side. It’s not very far.
Odd. I’d always heard the closest was the shared Aleutian Chain
Shared Aleutian Chain?
The westernmost islands of the Aleutian Islands, the Commander Islands, are Russian owned, but they’re a few hundred miles away from the rest of the Aleutians.
So Attu, which seems to appear in crossword puzzles every few days, is how far from its Russian neighbor?
Attu is about 750 miles from Russia.
Little Diomede is about three miles from Russia.
(OT, but mentioned above, I had it in my mind that the Japanese got over as far as Unalaska during WWII.)
Not so. One can see the Russian mainland from the radar site at Tin City (near the aforementioned Cape Prince of Wales) on a clear day. I’ve done it. The dome is at least at a thousand foot elevation.
I think it’s all been mentioned already but Slate’s The Explainer tackled this last year.
"Big Diomede, which sits in Russian territory, and Little Diomede, which is part of the United States. At their closest, these two islands are a little less than two and a half miles apart, which means that, on a clear day, you can definitely see one from the other. (To see the view of Big Diomede from Little Diomede, check out this webcam.) The Diomede Islands are often blanketed by persistent fog, which makes visibility difficult. On a clear day, though, a person standing at sea level can see a little less than three miles across the ocean. You can see farther if you go higher—at the highest altitude on Little Diomede (919 feet), you can see for about 37 miles. (Between mid-December and mid-June, when the water between the two islands freezes, an intrepid explorer can just walk from one to the other.) "
I wonder if Sarah knows about this. Maybe she would have asked for a wall to prevent illegal immigrataion 
My brother taught high school in Gambell, AL he has a picture of what he says was Russia. I have no reason to doubt him but from what I’ve read that is impossible. Gambell is about 36 miles from Russia.
So I don’t know if that photo was of Russia or just another piece of an Island somewhere. But he said it was anyway.
I hear Alabama is stunning this time of year.
Maybe he was thinking of Moscow, AL.
Must… not… make… Palin… joke…