A Kremlin envoy has proposed building an undersea tunnel linking the United States and Russia, suggesting it could be built with the help of US billionaire Elon Musk’s The Boring Company.
Kremlin investment envoy Kirill Dmitriev said that the 112-kilometre (70-mile) “railroad and cargo link” between Siberia and Alaska would “unlock joint resource exploration” between the two countries.
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US President Donald Trump, who has promised to “drill, baby drill” during his second term, told reporters on Friday that he thought the proposal was “interesting” during a White House meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
During their meeting, Trump turned to Zelenskyy, asking for his thoughts on the tunnel. The Ukrainian leader responded that he was “not happy with this idea”.
Dmitriev, who is also the CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, has also suggested that the US could join Russia and China in joint “hydrocarbon projects in the Arctic”, referring to expanded drilling for oil.
“Certainly, Russia is eyeing the opportunity of joint Russia-China-US projects, including in the Arctic region, specifically in the energy sector,” Dmitriev said last month, according to Russia’s TASS news agency.
Russia and other Arctic countries are reportedly planning to expand mining operations in the region as climate change sees polar ice receding.
Dmitriev also proposed that Musk’s The Boring Company could become involved in the project, tagging Musk in a post on X, a social media platform owned by the South Africa-born billionaire.
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“Let’s build a future together,” Dmitriev wrote to Musk on X, in a post also touting the project as “symbolising unity”.
“Imagine connecting the US and Russia, the Americas and the Afro-Eurasia with the Putin-Trump Tunnel,” Dmitriev wrote.
Musk had not publicly responded to Dmitriev’s post as of Friday evening, US time.
Dmitriev’s posts promoting the tunnel project came as Trump and Putin held a two-hour call on Thursday night in advance of a planned meeting in Hungary’s capital, Budapest, which Trump says will take place within two weeks.
The Kremlin has also confirmed the meeting.
The Bering Strait, 82km (51 miles) wide at its narrowest point, separates Russia’s vast and sparsely populated Chukotka region from Alaska.
Proposals to link them have been around for at least 150 years.
The small Diomede Islands, one Russian and one belonging to the US, sit in the middle of the strait, only 4km (2.4 miles) apart.
Dmitriev said a plan for a “Kennedy-Khrushchev World Peace Bridge” over the strait had been floated during the Cold War.
He posted a sketch from that era of the route it might have taken, with a graphic showing the route the new tunnel could take.
“The time has come to do more and connect the continents for the first time in human history,” Dmitriev said.
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