A Russian presidential economic envoy and key negotiator in Ukraine peace talks has proposed building an $8 billion undersea tunnel linking Alaska and Russia using Elon Musk’s tunnel construction company.
Kirill Dmitriev, the Kremlin’s special envoy on international economic and investment cooperation, said Thursday that the project could be completed within eight years by Musk’s Boring Company.
“Elon Musk, imagine connecting the U.S. and Russia, the Americas and Afro-Eurasia, with the Putin-Trump Tunnel — a 70-mile link symbolizing unity,” Dmitriev wrote on X.
He said the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), which he heads, and unspecified “international partners” could finance the project, drawing on experience from Russia’s recently completed bridge to China.
Dmitriev’s proposal came in response to newly released U.S. congressional documents on the late U.S. President John F. Kennedy, which included a proposal for a “World Peace Bridge” between Alaska and Siberia.
Modern tunneling technology could make Kennedy’s Cold War-era vision “a reality for under $8 billion,” Dmitriev claimed.
Dmitriev did not specify whether he had discussed the idea with Russian or U.S. officials, whether Musk or the Boring Company had been contacted or how sanctions and export restrictions might affect the project.
His comments followed a phone call between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump, during which the two agreed to meet in Budapest, Hungary, on an unspecified date.
Trump is set to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Washington on Friday to discuss potential deliveries of U.S. long-range Tomahawk missiles, a move Putin has warned would further damage U.S.-Russian relations.
Musk himself has not yet commented on Dmitriev’s proposal.
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