Kirill Dmitriev, who heads Russia’s $10 billion investment fund and acts as the Kremlin’s investment envoy to the United States, put forth a proposal on Thursday for constructing a tunnel beneath the Bering Strait to connect Alaska with Russia’s Chukotka region.
He even suggested naming the tunnel after President Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.
His idea was inspired by Soviet-era documents from the 1960s, as noted by Russian Ambassador to the U.S., Alexander Darchiev, while speaking with Representative Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) on Thursday.
The documents, mainly related to President John F. Kennedy’s assassination in 1963, included a proposal for a “Kennedy-Khrushchev World Peace Bridge” aimed at linking Alaska and Russia. This was during the time Nikita Khrushchev was the Soviet Premier.
At its narrowest point, the Bering Strait separates the two countries by less than 2.5 miles. The so-called “bridge to world peace” would link Little Diomede Island in Alaska with Big Diomede Island in Russia. While Little Diomede has a small Inupiat community, Big Diomede is home to a Russian military base and a weather station.
On Thursday, Dmitriev shared an image related to the Bridge of World Peace and excitedly noted, “With the latest Boring technology, this could be a Putin-Trump tunnel connecting Eurasia and the Americas for less than $8 billion!”
The Boring Company, led by billionaire Elon Musk, specializes in tunnel construction among its various ventures. Current projects include a tunnel being built between downtown Nashville and the Nashville International Airport.
Dmitriev mentioned that the planned tunnel under the Bering Strait would stretch approximately 110 miles.
He reiterated in his message to Musk, “Traditional costs are over $65 billion, but with Boring Company technology we can reduce them to less than $8 billion. Let’s build the future together!”
According to Dmitriev, his RDIF and Russia’s Arctic Fund could finance the endeavor in collaboration with “international partners.” He projected its completion within eight years, predicting it would “create jobs” and “boost the economy.”
“RDIF has previously invested in and constructed the first Russian-China railway bridge. Now, it’s time to expand and connect continents for the first time in human history—let’s link Russia and the U.S.,” he added.
However, skeptics have raised concerns that the proposed tunnel would lack essential infrastructure, as neither Russia nor the U.S. has any roads or railways within hundreds of miles of the location. Additionally, the region is prone to seismic activity.
Dmitriev heads Russia’s “charm offensive” in the U.S., so one might take his enthusiasm for the improbable tunnel with some skepticism. One of his key goals involves strengthening economic ties between the two nations, which could potentially dampen Western efforts to impose sanctions on Russia for its actions in Ukraine.
As of Friday morning, there had been no response from either Donald Trump or Elon Musk regarding Dmitriev’s tunnel suggestion.
