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Russia plans $65bn tunnel to America. April 20, 2007

Russia has unveiled an ambitious plan to build the world’s longest tunnel under the Bering Straits as part of a transport corridor linking Europe and America via Siberia and Alaska.

Proposals for a tunnel under the Bering Strait were first advanced a century ago under Tsar Nicholas II but foundered with the outbreak of the First World War and the Russian Revolution.

The idea was revived after the collapse of the Soviet Union but was shelved once again in Russia’s financial meltdown of 1998.

The 60-mile (100km) tunnel would connect the far east of Russia with Alaska, opening up the prospect of connecting all the Continents of the World together by rail, except Australia.

With a prospect of an 19,000 mile freight train journey from London to Panama, via Moscow, Omsk, Irkutsk, Magadan, Anadyr, Diomede port on the Bering Straits, Yukon, Fairbanks, Edmonton, Vancouver, Los Angeles, El Paso, Mexico City, and Panama.

The proposed tunnel will be twice as long as the Channel tunnel, but will be built in three sections, coming up in the Diomede islands in the Bering straits.

Maxim Bystrov,deputy head of Russia's economic agency, states that it could be built within ten years.

Comprising rail, oil pipeline, hydropower line, and fibre optics. As a sweetner Russia will offer cheap oil and power to Alaska, for 25 years.

Construction will save both Siberia and the USA, each $20bn per year in electricity costs.

Check it out at- http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article1680121.ece

***Thoughts
Sounds fab, as long as its Commercial and not Political?
Dont fancy sitting in the train for say,....seven weeks?

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"You will never find a real Human being - even in a mirror." .....Mike Kremer.
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Which part of plate tectonics do you think they missed?

Good point. The boundary of the Pacific Plate with the North American Plate is about 1000mls south of the proposed tunnel. That's about as far as the African Plate/Eurasian Plate boundary is from The Channel Tunnel. Here in the north of Thailand, I happen to be, again, about 1000mls from epicentre of the quake off the coast of Sumatra that caused the devastating tsunami in Dec 2004. At that time I was sitting right here at this computer. My whole world was shoved a few inches to the right over a period of a second or two. A weird feeling to find yourself momentarily leaning to the left!

Let's hope these people have done their homework!

"As a sweetner Russia will offer cheap oil and power to Alaska, for 25 years."

? Sounds like "sending coals to Newcastle".

This is all about Russia getting infrastructure into the ground so that they can deliver natural gas to North America. Nothing more, nothing less.

You could be right, time will tell. A tunnel will depend upon politics, money, and the New World Order.

The Canadians did say two years ago that they would be making a charge for Oil tankers that took the quicker Northern route through their territory's.
A distinct possibility, since the Panama, is about to be widened to enable the larger size Oil tankers to pass thru.
Existing tankers pass thru with just inches to spare.
Also there is a worry that there may not be enough water running into the New Panama canal from the freshwater lake that re-fills the locks, after each tanker passes thru.

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"You will never find a real Human being - even in a mirror." .....Mike Kremer.
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Russia is learning a new way to exert power. It used to rely on it's military, now it's using it's energy supplies.
They're well on their way to have Europe largely dependant on Russian energy, and they have had no problems cutting off the flow of energy to get their point across (see Poland and Ukraine). I'm sure they'd love to gain access to North America, who by the way, is rapidly consuming the natural gas reserves to develop the Alberta oil sands deposits.

I don't remember us pale-faced igloo dwellers mentioning anything about a fee for oil tankers (or at least nothing from our government). The only thing we hear about the Artic, is the US constantly making noises about the "unclaimed" nature of the north, and how they need to build a "presence" in order to preserve their territorial rights. Needless to say, it get us plenty nervous

I honestly can't see something like this happening. First there's the problems of building the tunnel, then you're going to have to do some significant work to hook that tunnel into the large scale North American transportation infrastructure - which isn't located in Alaska.

Well Russia has the surplus energy, and it is part of Europe.
The cold war is long gone. Democratic Russia ,Europe and USA have been co-operating in all aspects of Space, etc including TV (we can watch 'Russia Today' news, on satellite TV, 24 hrs a day, and very interesting it is too. Many Russian billionaires have bought property in Europe, live and have bases in the UK.
Of couse they want to sell us their Gas/Oil. What other nation would you suggest they sell to, and tie up with? China?
The US and Europe would be the losers.


They increased the price of energy to a couple of their 'satellite countrys, bring prices more in line with what they charge the rest of Europe. With most of Europe in the Common Market these days, it should eventually smooth out currencys and help inter-trading facilitys.
Incidentally, we have more Poles living in a couple of towns in the UK than English (But thats another story)

Only Canada themselves, will be developing the Alberta Oil shale deposits.
That will not be such an easy task, it requires a lot of energy to extract the oil, and will produce a lot of pollution, something the Canadian Gov is well aware of.
I will try to find the article quoted by a Canadian Parliament member " that they could legally make a charge for shipping threading their way thru the Noth West Territorys". I did write about it in this Forum maybe 2 yrs ago.
I would'nt worry about the 'pale faced igloo dwellers'. They have their own virtual country now called "Nunavat". They have found plenty of oil and diamonds to compensate for igloos and hunting.

What unclaimed nature of the North? Presumably 20 miles off shore, off the coast of Alaska (or is it 50?) belongs to the USA. Everything from the coast of Alberta to the north, is Canadian sovereign territory, even the Magnwtic North Pole area. Which will be sitting in the ocean if global warming continues.
And yes you could be right..The 'Aleutian Tunnel' could start off, just as an Oil pipeline. But it would be a natural place to put a tunnel sometime in the future. Think of the financial benefits, the trade, the tourists, the immigration. Why it might even push back the Mexicans.

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"You will never find a real Human being - even in a mirror." .....Mike Kremer.
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Yes the cold war is long gone, but Russia (democratic????) wants to be seen as a major player again. Having other major players dependant on Russian energy supplies gives Putin a whole lot of power. I suspect this is precisly what was behind the nationalization of the energy companies. Global power for Moscow. The Economist did a good story on this either last week or two weeks ago.




I guess I should have updated my profile earlier - I'm Canadian. I can easily see a MP making that statement, (every country has some whacko politicians) however I can't ever see that gaining traction with a sitting government. How could one justify charging passage through the NorthWest Passage, where no infrastructure would be required?

The natural gas that we're running through to break down the bitumen in the oil sands is enormous, and continuing to do so will quickly drain the gas reserves of all of North America. There's been talk of building nuclear plants to provide the power, but that's all it's been - talk.



Us Canucks were equally astounded when the US stated that the NorthWest Passage was international waters, even though it is almost completely within the Canadian 200 mile limit. There has been talk within the US government of sending vessels to secure the area as international waters. Canada and Denmark have also had a pissing match over a little Artic island. Here's a link.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4354036.stm

Oh and not to be pedantic - could you point out where Alberta's coast would be?

Hi Canuck,
Yes I guessed you were Canadian. Having worked over there for almost 7yrs I was aware of the name. Hehehe.
Love the Country.
Alberta coastline?...Sorry I just guessed, did'nt look at a map.

But many thanks for the very informative URL. Excellent, I will file it for future reference.

Mike Kremer.

Russia is almost..almost as corrupt as the United States. Would this benefit the average American consumer or the fat pockets of big business..

I still cannot see Russia doing anything willingly to help out the US. Unless they are going to get a really big payback for it. And what might that payback be? Hmm. Mining rights to the moon to dig for Helium-3, perhaps?

Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of Russians? (A deliberate paraphrase, that)

Who says they still do not rely on military power, why are they still spending billions on nuclear subs, have made a new ballistic missile, have spent billions on underground facilities, with good reason as america builds it secret missile offence program. If there was a tunnel they could save on missiles, it might be economics...would it be cheaper to drive to the us or keep building subs and missiles.