The United States and Russia are separated by the Bering Strait. Barely 80 kilometers of sea divide the two nations, but in the winter months, something curious happens: it is possible to go from the United States to Russia by walking on the waters. In the middle of the strait are the Diomedes Islands, and each one belongs to a country. When the sea freezes, the four kilometers between islands become a corridor that is illegal to travel. Now, however, Russia and the United States are approaching positions to create a corridor between the two countries.
A tunnel between Alaska and Chukotka in Russia.
In short. US President Donald Trump has emerged as a key actor in two of the most important and media conflicts of recent times: Israel’s intervention in Palestine and the war between Russia and Ukraine. Whether it was a campaign to obtain the long-awaited Nobel Peace Prize or not, the truth is that Trump has become, and has turned the United States, into a considerable entity in both conflicts. He maintains constant calls with Zelensky and Putin, and after one with the Russian president, the idea of physically connecting the United States and Russia has returned.
Following one of those calls, Kirill Dmitriev, director of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and the Kremlin’s special representative for international economic cooperation, launched the proposal in Twitter X: a 112-kilometer railway tunnel between both countries, in the Bering Strait and under the Diomedes. Dmitriev’s decision was not spontaneous and, according to him, the RDIF has been carrying out a feasibility study of the project for months based on previous experience connecting Russia and China over the Amur River.
150 years of projects. The idea is not new either. In fact, Dmitriev himself alluded days before to the ‘Bridge of World Peace’ that was created in the Cold War, during the Kennedy-Khrushchev era, but the truth is that plans to connect both territories have been on the table since the 19th century.
In 1890, an American governor proposed a railroad that would link the world and pass through the Bering Strait. Two years later, the designer of the Golden Gate presented his idea, although the Russians rejected it. In 1904, American railroad entrepreneurs came back with the idea, Tsar Nicholas II gave his approval, and then came the Russian Revolution and the First World War.
He later explored the possibility of the connection again, but 150 years later, Russia and the United States still do not have their tunnel.
The letter from “the boring company”. What could be the key now to undertake the works? Beyond the geopolitical card, the costs. In his proposal, Dmitriev presented some of the results of that feasibility plan, stating that a tunnel in the Bering Strait would cost more than $65 billion if traditional methods are used, but (and here comes the “but”), another entity could lower the total cost of the project to less than $8 billion.
Who? Elon Musk and his company The Boring Company. The Russian representative affirms that the technology of Musk’s tunnel company (which built The Loop tunnel in Las Vegas, in addition to being the subject of several controversies for its projects) would not only allow the project to become a reality with a low budget, but to do so in less than eight years.
frozen enemy. The problem, if all parties agree, is that the soil in Las Vegas is not the same as that in the Bering Strait. At 112 kilometers in length, the tunnel would be twice as long as the Eurotunnel between France and England and, in addition, it would have to be excavated in very complex terrain. To begin with, the region is located in the Pacific Ring of Fire, an area with moderate seismic activity, but where earthquakes of magnitude seven can occur.
In addition, it would have to be excavated 45 meters below the seabed to protect from currents and, most importantly, the entrances to the tunnel would be in permanently frozen ground. If everything remained unchanged, it wouldn’t be a major problem, but Alaska has experienced an increase in average temperatures in recent years, something that is expected to continue due to climate change, and melting ice would complicate maintenance of these parts of the tunnel. In fact, it has already happened on the Trans-Alaska pipeline.
We will see if this project comes to fruition or if it ends up on the list of “we should make a tunnel”, but the truth is that there are too many against it, starting with issues of national security, geopolitics, the terrain itself, the extreme geological conditions and even the train connections that would have to be made through Alaska and Russia for the tunnel to be of any use.
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