It's Going to Take One Big Mole!

This is interesting in light of my previous post this morning concerning China.

Russia Plans World's Longest Tunnel, a Link to Alaska (Update3)

By Yuriy Humber and Bradley Cook

April 18 (Bloomberg) -- Russia plans to build the world's longest tunnel, a transport and pipeline link under the Bering Strait to Alaska, as part of a $65 billion project to supply the U.S. with oil, natural gas and electricity from Siberia.
The project, which Russia is coordinating with the U.S. and Canada, would take 10 to 15 years to complete, Viktor Razbegin, deputy head of industrial research at the Russian Economy Ministry, told reporters in Moscow today. State organizations and private companies in partnership would build and control the route, known as TKM-World Link, he said.
A 6,000-kilometer (3,700-mile) transport corridor from Siberia into the U.S. will feed into the tunnel, which at 64 miles will be more than twice as long as the underwater section of the Channel Tunnel between the U.K. and France, according to the plan. The tunnel would run in three sections to link the two islands in the Bering Strait between Russia and the U.S.
``This will be a business project, not a political one,'' Maxim Bystrov, deputy head of Russia's agency for special economic zones, said at the media briefing. Russian officials will formally present the plan to the U.S. and Canadian governments next week, Razbegin said.
The Bering Strait tunnel will cost $10 billion to $12 billion and the rest of the investment will be spent on the entire transport corridor, the plan estimates.
``The project is a monster,'' Yevgeny Nadorshin, chief economist with Trust Investment Bank in Moscow, said in an interview. ``The Chinese are crying out for our commodities and willing to finance the transport links, and we're sending oil to Alaska. What, Alaska doesn't have oil?''
Finance Agencies
Tsar Nicholas II, Russia's last emperor, was the first Russian leader to approve a plan for a tunnel under ......

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Follow the link and read the entire article. A tunnel under the Bering Strait? I suppose it is better for us to beat the Chinese to the vast repository of raw materials in Siberia. I can't see them sitting still for it when they will desperately need these materials and the energy over the coming years. It is going to become a matter of priorities for them. Do they invade north into the "storehouse", or head west to the "powerhouse"? If they go north, they get both. Will this country be willing to go to war as an ally of Russia against China to prevent it? We'd better be becoming energy independent quickly!