Bering Strait plan revived

An idea first mulled in the tsarist era – a tunnel under the Bering Strait – is being revived as part of an ambitious project to build a 3,700-mile transport corridor linking Russia with Alaska.

Billed by backers as the key to developing Russia’s Far East – remote and sparsely populated but rich in energy and minerals – the €47bn project will be the focus of a conference in Moscow on Tuesday, organisers say.

“The project would give Russia’s East the chance to become a leading industrial region of the country and one of the most important transit hubs of the world economy,” said a statement, which bore the logos of Russia’s pipeline monopoly Transneft, electricity utility RAO United Energy Systems and the Trade Ministry, among others.