Kremlin wants Elon Musk to build a tunnel from Russia to America

The idea of ​​building a tunnel between Russia and Alaska through the Bering Strait has been proposed since the 1950s. If we believe the statements of Kirill Dmitriev, the CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, apparently the Kremlin intends to revive it.

Dmitriev, the CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, presented the idea on Thursday on the social network X (formerly Twitter), along with a map of the tunnel’s possible route, saying that American billionaire Elon Musk is the right person to implement it.

He wrote: “Elon Musk, imagine connecting the United States and Russia, the Americas and Afro-Eurasia with the Putin-Trump tunnel; A 70 mile long bridge (about 113 km) which is a symbol of unity. The traditional cost of construction is more than $65 billion, but the Boring Company’s technology could reduce that to less than $8 billion. Let’s build the future together!”

Then-US President Donald Trump was asked about the proposal during a joint news conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House on Friday. He described the idea as “interesting,” but said, “We have to think about it. I have never heard anything about this before.”

In theory, building such a tunnel is quite possible, but Elon Musk might not be the right person to run it. In his drilling projects, Musk usually makes big promises, but in practice his achievements are much more limited than his initial statements. He has come up with many ambitious ideas, but when implemented, the results are usually much simpler than what he promised.

Dmitriev also referred to an older plan called the Kennedy-Khrushchev Bridge of World Peace, which was proposed in the early 1960s. But this idea is even older. In the March 3, 1959 edition of the Sunday comic Closer Than We Think by Arthur Radba, such a design was also mentioned. In that comic it says:

Senator Magnuson of Washington State had proposed a bold plan to connect the newly formed state of Alaska with Siberia via a bridge or car tunnel across the shallow waters of the Bering Strait. The route started from the city of Wells on the Seward Peninsula, passed through the islands of Little Diomede and Big Diomede, and then reached the city of Piak in Siberia.

The senator had predicted that this project would be completed within the lifetime of the present generation, and would establish a railroad and road between points as far away as New York and Paris. He said: “I am sure that the tourists who will one day drive on this route will be our best ambassadors!”

Is the idea of ​​building a tunnel between Russia and America just an attempt by the Russian government to mock Trump in the midst of the country’s war with Ukraine? It almost certainly is. But this does not mean that such a tunnel will never be built, especially if Trump again makes an unexpected decision and abandons support for Ukraine.

Indeed, there are signs that Trump may be ready to back down. In a post on Truth Social on Friday, he wrote about his meeting with Zelenskyi that the meeting was “very interesting and friendly,” adding that he wanted the bloodshed to stop and the Ukrainian president to reach an agreement:

Enough blood has been shed. Let the boundary lines remain where they are. Both sides claim victory and let history judge! It’s enough; No shooting, no death, no exorbitant and unbearable expenses. This war would never have started if I had been president. Thousands of people are killed every week. Enough is enough, go back to your homes and live in peace with your families!

A tunnel between the United States and Russia may not be built anytime soon, but peace between Russia and Ukraine seems further away than ever.