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Billionaire will dig tunnel linking Russia & US
Russia today ^ | 3-28-08 | staff

Posted on 03/28/2008 5:13:26 PM PDT by dynachrome

Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich has fuelled talk of a massive tunnel between Europe and America by forking out $160 MLN on the world’s largest drill. The 19-metre giant will be the first drill capable of boring a four-lane tunnel. The project would link Russia’s far eastern Chutoka region, which Abramovich governs, with America’s Alaska.

The tunnel was first mooted by the Tsars and then in the 1990s, but both times it was dumped because of high costs.

President Vladimir Putin is said to back the latest idea, as it would open up lucrative freight routes from Europe and allow Russian gas to be easily exported.

The giant drill will dwarf the current record-holder – a 15 metre Chinese drill being used for a Yangtze tunnel.

(Excerpt) Read more at russiatoday.ru ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; Russia; US: Alaska
KEYWORDS: abramovich; billionaire; energy; germany; russia; tunnel
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Pretty wild story.
1 posted on 03/28/2008 5:13:35 PM PDT by dynachrome
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To: dynachrome

Is this an April fool story? :)


2 posted on 03/28/2008 5:16:38 PM PDT by Sun (Pray that God sends us good leaders. Please say a prayer now.)
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To: dynachrome

Its a long way but if it could be built I suspect there would be lots of economic development on both ends of it. Personally I would go with a train tunnel.


3 posted on 03/28/2008 5:18:42 PM PDT by cripplecreek (Voting CONSERVATIVE in memory of 5 children killed by illegals 2/17/08 and 2/19/ 08)
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To: dynachrome

I think we best not hold our breath waiting for this one.


4 posted on 03/28/2008 5:18:48 PM PDT by WorkerbeeCitizen (Once you give up your integrity, the rest is downhill)
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To: dynachrome

Its a long way but if it could be built I suspect there would be lots of economic development on both ends of it. Personally I would go with a train tunnel.


5 posted on 03/28/2008 5:18:48 PM PDT by cripplecreek (Voting CONSERVATIVE in memory of 5 children killed by illegals 2/17/08 and 2/19/ 08)
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To: dynachrome

We shouldn’t allow this.

Next thing you know we’ll be getting illegal immigrants from Russia sneaking in.

We’ve got enough illegals as it is.


6 posted on 03/28/2008 5:19:04 PM PDT by Age of Reason
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To: dynachrome

It’s only 9 miles between the Diomedes Islands. Big Diomede is Russian, Little Diomede is American. In the winter, the ocean often freezes, and the people can walk or drive between the islands. Is it known if that is the planned route?


7 posted on 03/28/2008 5:19:05 PM PDT by redhead (Come ON, global warming!!)
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To: redhead

I didn’t see a route at the link.

Chunnel 2.0?


8 posted on 03/28/2008 5:21:47 PM PDT by dynachrome (Immigration without assimilation means the death of this nation~Captainpaintball)
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To: Age of Reason
Next thing you know we’ll be getting illegal immigrants from Russia sneaking in.

Yes btu they'd be russian single females looking for a better class of husband than your typical russian male.

9 posted on 03/28/2008 5:22:23 PM PDT by Centurion2000 (su - | echo "All your " | chown -740 us ./base | kill -9 | cd / | rm -r | echo "belong to us")
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To: Sun
No, been around a while. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1099304.stm Russians dream of tunnel to Alaska

By Eurasia analyst Malcolm Haslett

Russian officials have expressed new confidence over building a tunnel under the sea to link eastern Siberia and the US state of Alaska. But is it really viable?

The dream of linking the American and Eurasian land-masses at their closest point - 40 km of sea in the Bering Straits - has been around for a long time.

But the idea dropped out of sight, perhaps for obvious reasons.

Alaska
The tunnel would link remote parts of Russia and Alaska
Firstly Russia sold Alaska to the United States in 1867. Secondly, the regions on either side of the Bering Strait are among the most remote and least-developed in their respective countries.

On the US side there are settlements along the stretch of coast facing Russia, but they are not connected with the rest of Alaska by either road or rail. The nearest main road is at Fairbanks, almost 1,000km away, and Alaska has no rail connections at all with Canada or the rest of the United States.

On the Russian side the situation is even worse. The nearest road of any sort is about 1,500km from the straits, near the city of Magadan.


The idea is bound to capture the imagination of at least some of the more romantic entrepreneurs in North America

And Magadan is remote even by Russian standards. It would take enormous investment to link the country's easternmost point with the road network or with the BAM (Baikal-Amur Magistral) railway line.

Severe weather conditions and difficult terrain - including permafrost regions, mountains and summer swamps - would make building overland links very difficult and expensive.

Add to that the normal technical and geological complications of building long tunnels and one is faced with certainly the most ambitious and expensive tunneling project ever undertaken.

Channel Tunnel
The tunnel would be longer than the one under the English Channel
At 37km, the Bering Strait is only slightly wider than the English Channel, which is 34km wide.

But the man who has been the Russia-US tunnel's most enthusiastic backer, Viktor Razbegin, director of a Transport project centre in Moscow, admits that for geological reasons the tunnel would have to be much longer than the present Channel linking France and England.

Nonetheless, he suggests, there is real enthusiasm, and potentially money, for the project on the Russian side.

But would there be any chance of winning major investment in America.


Although the region is one of the very poorest in the Russian Federation, there lie under its soil rich deposits of oil, gold and coal

The idea is bound to capture the imagination of at least some of the more romantic entrepreneurs in North America.

Yet most are likely to be put off by the sheer size of the enterprise, and severe doubts about the returns. Would the amount of traffic through such a tunnel generate revenues remotely sufficient to repay investment in it?

One Russian who may think it would is the new governor of Chukotka, Roman Abramovich.

Russian high-speed train
Russian rail links stop far short of the remote tunnel zone
The rich and ambitious oil tycoon, elected the region's MP last year, recently consolidated his influence over the sparsely-populated region - which has an adult population of less than 50,000 - by being elected governor.

He knows that although the region is one of the very poorest in the Russian Federation, rich deposits of oil, gold and coal lie under its soil.

With sufficient investment it could become, literally, a goldmine. Roman Abramovich certainly thinks so. And that may be one reason for Viktor Razbegin's confidence that the tunnel idea has a future.

The rest of the world, however, may need a lot of convincing.


10 posted on 03/28/2008 5:22:40 PM PDT by BGHater ($2300 is the limit of your Free Speech.)
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To: WorkerbeeCitizen

“best not hold our breath”

Probably, but what do ya do with a 19 metre drill?


11 posted on 03/28/2008 5:22:59 PM PDT by dynachrome (Immigration without assimilation means the death of this nation~Captainpaintball)
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To: Sun

Not that I am aware of. Do the russians have an April 1st tradition?


12 posted on 03/28/2008 5:23:49 PM PDT by dynachrome (Immigration without assimilation means the death of this nation~Captainpaintball)
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To: WorkerbeeCitizen
Not gonna happen, Geologically unstable.
13 posted on 03/28/2008 5:25:04 PM PDT by urabus
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To: Age of Reason

Have you ever worked with Russians? I would bet big money that Russian illegal immigrants would bring a helluva lot more skill than the Latins currently do. Most Russians are simply amazing.


14 posted on 03/28/2008 5:25:25 PM PDT by krb (If you're not outraged, people probably like having you around.)
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To: krb

They’re weird too.

Russian humor makes Australians look like dry sourpusses.


15 posted on 03/28/2008 5:26:31 PM PDT by Crazieman (Vaya van Juan McCain en 2008)
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To: dynachrome

Mmmmm, trapped in the tunnel when Mohammed detonates his little suicide car-bomb. First exploded, then drowned.

No thanks. Can you imagine the friggin security to drive through this thing? You think TSA at the airports is fun?


16 posted on 03/28/2008 5:28:12 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man (I'd like to tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.)
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To: dynachrome

Great, a tunnel connecting two places no one wants to go.


17 posted on 03/28/2008 5:28:52 PM PDT by Nachoman (My guns and my ammo, they comfort me.)
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To: dynachrome

This should make it easier for the US to annex Siberia.


18 posted on 03/28/2008 5:29:51 PM PDT by Argus (Obama: All turban and no goats.)
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To: krb
"Have you ever worked with Russians? I would bet big money that Russian illegal immigrants would bring a helluva lot more skill than the Latins currently do. Most Russians are simply amazing."'

There are LOTS of Russians here in Wasilla. In my neighborhood alone, there are about half a dozen families. They mostly keep to themselves--hard to get to know.

19 posted on 03/28/2008 5:30:19 PM PDT by redhead (Come ON, global warming!!)
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To: dynachrome

So how many underground nuclear bunkers has this built in russia and the middle east?


20 posted on 03/28/2008 5:30:45 PM PDT by edcoil (Go Great in 08 ... Slide into 09)
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