The Russians are coming, The Russians are digging to Alaska

Washington Times:

Russia plans to build the world's longest tunnel under the Bering Strait to Alaska as part of a $65 billion project to supply the United States with oil, natural gas and electricity from Siberia.
The project, which Russia is coordinating with the United States and Canada, would take 10 to 15 years to complete, Viktor Razbegin, deputy head of industrial research at the Russian Economy Ministry, told reporters at a briefing here yesterday.
A partnership of state organizations and private companies would build and control the route, known as TKM-World Link, he said.
A planned 3,700-mile transportation corridor from Siberia into the United States 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 Britain 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 United States.
"This will be a business project, not a political one," said Maxim Bystrov, deputy head of Russia's agency for special economic zones. Russian officials will formally present the plan to the U.S. and Canadian governments next week, Mr. Razbegin said.
The Bering Strait tunnel will cost an estimated $10 billion to $12 billion. The rest of the investment will be spent on the entire transportation corridor, according to the plan.
"The project is a monster," said Yevgeny Nadorshin, chief economist with Trust Investment Bank in Moscow. "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?"
Czar Nicholas II, Russia's last emperor, was the first Russian leader to approve a plan for a tunnel under the Bering Strait, in 1905, some 38 years after his grandfather sold Alaska to America for $7.2 million. World War I ended the project.
The planned undersea tunnel would contain a high-speed railway, highway and pipelines, as well as power lines and fiber-optic cables, according to TKM-World Link.
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This is an ambitious and interesting project. It will become an undersea route that follows in the footsteps of those who are said to have populated America to begin with. While Alaska is not in need of oil, the route should make Russian oil more economical in the US, though at this time it appears to be a very undependable supplier in Europe.