Putin Envoy Woos Musk With Russia-to-US Tunnel Proposal

A special envoy to Russian President Vladimir Putin has called on Elon Musk to build a tunnel between Alaska and Russia’s remote Far East, reviving a decades-old idea at a time when the Kremlin seeks to strengthen ties with the White House. Kirill Dmitriev, chief executive officer of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, called for a “Putin-Trump tunnel” under the Bering Strait. He claimed in a series of X posts that the Boring Co., Musk’s drilling business, could complete the project for about $8 billion in less than eight years, without providing details. The Kremlin and Boring Co. did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Boring’s only completed public project to date is an underground loop in Las Vegas that connects a convention center and several hotels. The pitch is strange at best given that the tunnel will have to cut through some of the world’s most inhospitable, remote and empty terrain. It comes after Putin and US President Donald Trump held a call on Thursday to discuss efforts to end the war in Ukraine and fits a broader pattern by Dmitriev to get Musk and the US president on Russia’s side. Trump said the two leaders, who met in Alaska earlier this year, would hold a summit in Budapest in the coming weeks to continue ceasefire talks. “The question is who will even use it,” said Emily Ferris, a senior fellow at RUSI who studies Russian transport infrastructure. “It’s impossible to get up there in the first place and it’s mostly deserted. It’s not well connected to any other parts of the Far East.” Trump was asked about the idea during a White House meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday. “A tunnel from Russia to Alaska — I just heard about that one,” Trump said. “It’s an interesting one. We’ll have to think about it.” With help from Ilya Arkhipov and Kiel Porter. ©2025 Bloomberg LP This article was generated from an automated news agency feed with no text modifications.