Russia and US to sign design agreement for Bering Strait tunnel linking Siberia and Alaska
Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev announced that Russia and the United States will sign an agreement on 5 June to continue designing a tunnel under the Bering Strait, a project he first proposed last autumn.
The announcement in St. Petersburg
Kirill Dmitriev, the Kremlin's special envoy for foreign investment and a key negotiator with Washington, told reporters on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (Spief) that an agreement would be signed the following day.
He described it as one of the most important infrastructure projects between the two countries.Regarding the tunnel, we will have news tomorrow: we are signing an agreement to continue the design. There will be a tunnel.
The project's scope and cost
Dmitriev first floated the tunnel idea in October 2025, proposing it be named after presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump. The project would connect the Chukotka region in Russia's Far East with Alaska across the Bering Strait, a distance of roughly 82 kilometres with a maximum depth of 90 metres. Dmitriev estimated the cost at over $65 billion using conventional construction methods, or under $8 billion using tunnel-boring technology from Elon Musk's The Boring Company, with an eight-year construction timeline.
The broader diplomatic context
The tunnel talks unfold against the backdrop of Russia's ongoing war in Ukraine and sweeping US sanctions. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday that Russia is interested in joint economic projects with the United States, provided Washington stops linking trade ties to a Ukrainian peace settlement.
Peskov also reiterated the tough ceasefire conditions Putin set out in June 2024, which Ukraine has rejected.To the extent that the American side is willing to delink the prospects for normalising trade and economic relations from a Ukrainian settlement, or to the extent that a Ukrainian settlement occurs, then we hope the path to the implementation of a whole range of economic projects will be open.
Ukraine's position
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said he does not believe Russia intends to stop the war. Ukraine has refused to surrender territory in the four regions Russia claims to have annexed, and Russia currently controls about 20% of the country. Zelenskiy has also reported that Russia proposed a $12 trillion cooperation package to the United States.
A decades-old vision
The Bering Strait tunnel has been a Russian ambition for decades. The strait, which separates eastern Asia from western North America and connects the northern Pacific Ocean with the Arctic Sea, represents the natural border between Russia and the United States. The progressive melting of Arctic ice is opening new, faster trade routes between Europe and Asia, adding strategic weight to the proposal. The project, referred to in some coverage as the Intercontinental Peace Bridge, would be the first direct land connection between the Americas and Asia.
- Dmitriev first proposes the Bering Strait tunnel, suggesting it be named after Putin and Trump
- Trump administration shares documents with European counterparts on reintegrating Russia into the global economy
- Russian Foreign Ministry submits proposals to the US on removing barriers to full restoration of relations
- Dmitriev announces at Spief that a design agreement will be signed the following day
- Expected signing of the agreement to continue tunnel design
What comes next
Dmitriev's announcement signals that design work will proceed, though the project remains at a preliminary stage. For now, Russia remains under sweeping US sanctions largely tied to the war, and Trump's efforts to end the conflict have yielded no breakthrough, even though both he and Putin have said in recent days that they believe an end to the conflict is near after more than four years of intense fighting.
