London’s The Economist magazine has managed to outdo Ukraine’s acting president Volodymyr Zelenskyy. On Feb. 6, Zelenskyy had cited a Ukrainian intelligence report that Moscow had offered Washington a $12 trillion project to win its cooperation. Zelenskyy labelled it the “Dmitriev Package,” after the head of Russia’s Direct Investment Fund, Kirill Dmitriev—yet he avoided any mention of Dmitriev’s centerpiece, the Trump-Putin Tunnel across the Bering Sea, nor has any such report been produced. Zelenskyy was merely asserting the right to examine what Moscow had proposed to Washington, as it concerns Kiev.
On Feb. 17, The Economist, citing “informed sources,” reported that the $12 trillion involves Arctic oil and gas extraction, rare earth mining, a nuclear-powered data processing center and even “a tunnel under the Bering Strait.” They add that not only is it a bribe, but that they have seen a memo prepared for Russia’s Security Council prior to the 2025 Trump-Putin summit in Alaska, which reportedly outlined how to present what it called the “biggest deal” in bilateral economic ties. It described Russia as a “treasure trove of Arctic and northern resources” and claimed: “Everyone will make a lot of money” and that “Presidents Putin and Trump could potentially receive Nobel Prizes.”