Kremlin pitches £6,000,000,000 ‘peace bridge’ between Russia and America

A ‘peace bridge’ connecting Russia to America, worth £6 billion. This is the Kremlin’s latest moonshot, pitched directly to billionaire Elon Musk.

At the White House, Donald Trump appeared to hear about it for the first time – or at least did a convincing impression of it.

‘A tunnel from Russia to Alaska. That’s…interesting,’ the US president said, when asked about the idea by reporters during his meeting with Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky.

Asking Zelensky about the cross-border project, he said: ‘What do you think of that, Mr President?… How do you like that idea?’

The Ukrainian leader – who has been combating Russia’s war for more than three years – appeared less than thrilled.

‘I’m not happy with this,’ he warned, eliciting a laugh from his host.

The proposal by Kirill Dmitriev, Vladimir Putin’s investment envoy and head of Russia’s RDIF sovereign wealth fund, would see a rail tunnel built under the Bering Strait that separates the Russian Far East from Alaska.

He suggested that linking the two nations would unlock joint exploration of natural resources and ‘symbolise unity’.

While plans for a bridge or a tunnel to cross the Bering Strait have been floated for decades, they have not generated much serious consideration because of the rocky relationship between the two superpowers.

In a post on X, the envoy claimed that the idea of a ‘peace bridge’ between Russia and Alaska dated back to the Cold War era.

Proposing that Musk is involved in the project with his company, Dmitriev said: ‘With modern @boringcompany technology this can become a Putin-Trump tunnel.’

There was no immediate public response from the Tesla and X CEO.

Beyond the tunnel itself, it would cost a huge sum to build and upgrade infrastructure on both sides of the strait. Chukotka’s existing roads and railways are sparse, at best.

In addition, Dmitriev 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,’ he said last month, according to Russia’s TASS news agency.

This comes as Trump said ‘great progress’ was made during a phone call with Putin, with the two agreeing to face-to-face talks in Hungary.

It was their first call since mid-August, with the Republican describing it as ‘very productive’, adding that teams from the US and Russia will meet next week.

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