Why didn't Russia discover America? With Alaska being so close to Russia what did they think the land to the east was?

by CashBag

Curious why Russia never ventured east. Maybe they did and I am missing something but it would make sense as they were much closer to North America than the Spanish Portuguese were.

Craishton

There are surely more things to say, but a similar question was recently answered by u/kieslowskifan and u/poob1x