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Russia and the United States should build a "Putin-Trump" rail tunnel under the Bering Strait to connect their countries, unlock joint exploration of natural resources and "symbolize unity", one of the Russian President's closest aides has suggested.
The proposal by Kirill Dmitriev, President Vladimir Putin's investment envoy and head of Russia's sovereign wealth fund RDIF, envisions an $8 billion construction project, financed by Moscow and "international partners," to build a 112km rail and freight link in less than eight years.
Dmitriev, who has helped lead a Russian seduction offensive designed to revive U.S.-Russia ties, floated the idea late Thursday after Putin spoke by phone with U.S. President Donald Trump and they agreed to meet in Budapest to seek a way to stop the war in Ukraine.
Asked by a reporter about the idea Friday during a meeting in Washington with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump called the idea “interesting” and asked Zelensky what he thought of it. “I’m not happy with that idea,” the Ukrainian leader said, drawing laughter from the American side.
“The dream of a US-Russia connection via the Bering Strait reflects a long-standing vision – from the Siberian-Alaska railway of 1904 to Russia’s 2007 plan. RDIF has studied existing proposals, including the US-Canada-Russia-China railway, and will support the most viable one,” Dmitriev wrote in X.
The Bering Strait, 82 km wide at its narrowest point, separates the vast and sparsely populated Chukotka region of Russia from Alaska. Ideas to connect them have been around for at least 150 years. The tiny Diomede Islands, one Russian and the other belonging to the US, lie in the middle of the strait, just 4 km apart.
Dmitriev, who has established a working relationship with Steve Witkoff, Trump's special envoy, suggested that major American energy companies could join Russian projects in the Arctic and proposed that the tunnel be built by The Boring Company, an American tunnel construction company owned by American billionaire Elon Musk.
“Imagine connecting the US and Russia, the Americas and Afro-Eurasia with the Putin-Trump tunnel – a 70-mile link symbolizing unity. Traditional costs are over $65 billion, but @boringcompany technology can bring that down to <$8 billion. Let’s build a future together,” Dmitriev wrote to Musk on X.
There was no immediate public reaction from Musk.
Beyond the tunnel itself, building and improving infrastructure on both sides of the strait would cost a huge sum. Chukotka's existing roads and railways are sparse.
Dmitriev said a plan for a “Kennedy-Khrushchev World Peace Bridge” across the strait was proposed during the Cold War. He posted a sketch from that era of the route it could have taken, with a graphic showing the route the new tunnel could take.
"RDIF has already invested and built the first Russia-China railway bridge. The time has come to do more and connect the continents for the first time in human history. The time has come to connect Russia and the US," Dmitriev said.
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