Chinese and Russian companies want to create an underwater tunnel that would allow uninterrupted transport of goods to Crimea.
Russian and Chinese businessmen with ties to the government are in secret talks about plans to build an underwater tunnel connecting Russia to occupied Crimea. According to messages intercepted by Ukrainian security services, both sides hope to create a transport route protected from attacks from Ukraine. The case is reported by the Washington Post.
The intercepted emails show that one of the largest Chinese construction companies has expressed its willingness to participate in the project. These reports are corroborated by other information obtained by the daily, including company registration files, which show that a Russian-Chinese consortium consisting of the people named in the emails has recently been established in Crimea.
Moscow’s concerns
The talks, which took place in late October, were prompted by growing Russian concerns about the security of the Kerch Strait bridge, which serves as a key logistical route for the Russian military. Let’s not forget that the bridge has already been attacked twice by Ukraine.
As the newspaper notes, the talks highlight Russia’s determination to maintain control of the peninsula, which it illegally annexed in 2014, as well as Moscow’s growing dependence on China as a source of global support.
Building a tunnel next to the existing bridge will face enormous obstacles, according to U.S. officials and technical experts. They say work on this scale, which will likely cost billions of dollars and take years, has never been done in a war zone.
However, despite doubts about the feasibility of this plan, experts say Moscow has clear reasons to implement it. According to Oleksandr Gabuev, an expert on Moscow-Beijing relations at the Carnegie Russian Eurasian Center, Russia, which did not achieve a decisive victory in the war, “runs the risk that Ukraine will try to destroy the Kerch Bridge.”
The project would also pose political and financial risks for China, which has never officially recognized Russia’s annexation of Crimea and whose companies could face economic sanctions imposed by the United States and the European Union.
Source: Do Rzeczy
Roy Brown is a renowned economist and author at The Nation View. He has a deep understanding of the global economy and its intricacies. He writes about a wide range of economic topics, including monetary policy, fiscal policy, international trade, and labor markets.
