Moscow Hints at Potential US-Russia Tunnel Deal
kyivpost.comIt's an idea which has been touted for a while; tunnelling between Alaska and Chukotka via the Diomede islands. Apparently Khruschev and Kennedy spoke about a 'Peace Bridge' connecting the 2 powers.
According to the article, the projects head(?) said traditionally it'd cost $65bil, but Musk's Boring Company could bring it down to 8.
Wonder if geopolitically, the USA is worried about China making moves in the Russian Far East, and wants to get ahead of the game.
The infrastructure involved in hooking up Chukotka to the rest of Russia would be mammoth, and probably quite revolutionary for the area.
How is anyone taking this seriously. Neither country is in a position to pay for it. And neither may have the engineering chops to pull it off right now.
It's continental shelf. Like 50m deep? Think the width is like 70km. It's hardly impossible. I mean, if the Faroe Islands can build undersea tunnels for fun...
Think I've seen a £100bil pricetag for a full infratructure revamp of the region including the tunnel. Unlocking resources, connecting the USA to China for rail freight,
Also seen people speaking about the energy benefits. There's a huge tidal range in the strait which could be captured, and apparently Russia like the idea of connecting the USA to their electricity grid to sell cheap energy.
I think the development of Chukotka would be massively exciting, as would finally connecting the 'new' and 'old worlds, tbh. Also seen some stuff about connecting the USA to Russia's energy grid.
> if the Faroe Islands can build undersea tunnels for fun
One tenth the distance. $2bn GDP island chain. Pretty different.
> Unlocking resources, connecting the USA to China for rail freight
These are already emerging navigable waterways. Connecting Alaska—not even the contiguous U.S.—to Siberia with a rail line so one can ship stuff more expensively than by sea is just so, so dumb.
> There's a huge tidal range in the strait
Not particularly even before factoring in transmission losses [1]. (And the cost of building and maintaining infrastructure in the middle of nowhere.)
> seen some stuff about connecting the USA to Russia's energy grid
We haven’t even bothered connecting Alaska to the North American grid [2].
This is not, and has never been, a serious proposal. Economically. Geopolitically. Environmentally. (Maybe it was when Kennedy and Kruschev were in power. I don’t know. Different world. I guess if China annexed Siberia it might be worth bringing up again.)
I don’t deny it’s a fun idea. Like building an American maglev system. But practically speaking, maybe the only thing it’s good for is distracting from St. Petersburg getting pummeled during Putin’s economic summit.
[1] https://earth.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/tidalenergy_2.p...
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_power_transmiss...
After reading a little more, I've just seen another angle.
Russia's going to have a million veterans roaming around, with lots of untreated PTSD. A struggling economy could create the perfect storm for revolution.
Sending people eastwards for big projects famously isn't alien to Russia. Apparently it's alreayd being spoken aobut:
>Shoigu Calls for ‘New Industrialization’ in Siberia to Revive Russia’s East
>He proposed tax breaks and administrative incentives for businesses and social support for workers, including housing and car loans that would be written off after 10 years of service in the region.
>He proposed sending veterans of the war in Ukraine to build a “new Siberian Russia,” comparing it to labor efforts that built the Trans-Siberian Railway and Baikal-Amur Mainline.
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2025/11/06/shoigu-calls-for-n...
> Russia's going to have a million veterans roaming around, with lots of untreated PTSD. A struggling economy could create the perfect storm for revolution
There are plenty of make-work projects Moscow can waste its men on without requiring American co-operation.
> proposed sending veterans of the war in Ukraine to build a “new Siberian Russia,”
This actually makes sense. Between its military being revealed as a paper tiger and the oncoming demographic collapse, Moscow will need to work to keep Siberia from being encouraged–by America and possibly even China–to assert sovereignty over its mineral wealth. (It's not a new concept [1].) None of this requires a boondoggle tunnel to Alaska. And in the end, burning resources to keep men busy just delays the reckoning.
Sure, it might cost a bit but it's only a bit more than the Israel/US war on Iran cost, and it'd make it easier for Trump to report to his boss.
As neither side has year-round road access, it’s to be the rare road both to and from nowhere. The only commodity worth infrastructure would be oil.
Conclude this is to be in reality either pipedrem or pipeline.
Why? Not a great place to live or drive, do we do significant trade or will it make the odd invasions easier?
I'm guessing any plan would just be rail, maybe with drive in trains like the Channel Tunnel.
Unlocking rail freight routes between China and the USA surely would be huge. It'd probably massively speed up resource extraction in the Far East of Russia, too.
As for invasion, it'd probably help boost America's presence in Northeast Asia substantially. China creeping northwards has been mentioned a few times recently...
Cargo yes, that would make sense - in peacetime with rational allies
We have and are none of these at present
Everything about the US' actions at the moment screams pivoting to counter China this century, and it's quite convenient that all the 'bold moves' can be blamed on Trump.
I think the US realises that having working relations with Russia would be massively beneficial in denying China resources.
The US also knows Russia is in a very weak state right now, and the war can be leveraged to achieve some cheap deals. There were already talks about the US and Rusisa splitting up the Donbas resources as part of a deal, it's not crazy to think that such a deal could expand to exploiting the huge amounts of resources up in the Far East of Russia.
It's fashionable to think that everything about the US is irrational with orange man bad being owned by big bad russia, but more realistically, every piece of geopolitical news I see coming out of the USA points to a massive strategical pivot. Greenland = armed, EU militaries = boomtown, Saudi and Israel = making deals, Canada = militarising, etc. The US has no doubt realised it was spread too thin in a world where adversaries are developing quickly, and that its allies were asleep at the wheel.
“There were already talks about the US and Rusisa splitting up the Donbas resources as part of a deal”
The USA is not, nor should it be, an Imperialist conquerer, nor should we collaborate with one.
“Bold moves” my ass
It'd be quite difficult to operate if the government departments of the US didn't collaborate!
The US, Russia, China, etc, are all imperial powers trying to maximise access to resources to help keep their oligarch class in check, which helps keep the middle classes in blissful ignorance, which helps keep the underclasses from rising up.
It's a dynamic as old as the hills, and territory which comes with owning most of the world's key infrastructure, various g-men strategically scattered across the world and collecting a tithe on big chunks of the world's purchases.
There was a time when it would've been thought as unfeasible to ever work with Japan, where Germany was the height of all evil, when the French were mortal enemies, etc. Times change, and it's useful to keep an open mind.
I personally have always been fascinated by the sheer emptiness of that part of the world, and have always wanted to motorcycle to Magadan. I loved watching Dersu Usala (Kurosawa's Soviet movie), and think that part of the world is like a final frontier, especially if the world's climate keeps on changing.
Americans have departed Kyiv. Moscow's military plan in the special military operation is very likely to strike Kyiv very hard in escalation dominance chess move from the three wave drone attack on teenagers asleep at a boarding school.
Who are they telling those fairy tales to, even opening Trump Tower in Moscow is more realistic