Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund and Special Envoy of the President of Russia for investment and economic cooperation, Oct. 16 proposed U.S.-Russian cooperation to build the Bering Strait Tunnel to link the two countries—a proposal which U.S. President Donaldd Trump said was “interesting” and Ukraine’s Zelenskyy objected to, saying he was “not happy with this idea.” As the media around the world covered these developments, Dmitriev wrote on X: “The tunnel discussions begin.”
In a second post he revealed that “We have started the feasibility study of the Russia-Alaska tunnel six months ago”—i.e., about April 2025, or four months before the historic Alaska summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Trump.
The full history of the proposal goes back more than 150 years. Dmitriev posted: “History of a proposed Russia-Alaska link (Bering Strait): 1860s telegraph plans.
“1890s Gilpin’s intercontinental rail. 1950s-60s JFK-Khrushchev ‘World Peace Bridge.’ 2007-11 tunnel studies (Intercontinental Railway). Today: TBMs+ private capital. Next: permits & peace.”
He explained that TBMs refer to “a Tunnel Boring Machine: a mobile factory that drills, supports, and lines a tunnel at the same time.”
