Putin's envoy boasts of plans to sign agreement with US on Chukotka-Alaska tunnel

The Kremlin's special envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, has claimed that Russia and the United States are set to sign an agreement on 5 June regarding the design of a tunnel between Chukotka and Alaska.

"Regarding the tunnel. We will have news tomorrow: we are signing an agreement to continue designing the tunnel. The tunnel will be built," he said, as quoted by Kommersant.

Dmitriev described the project as a major infrastructure initiative between the two countries.

In October of last year, Dmitriev proposed a project to build a tunnel linking Russia and Alaska across the Bering Strait. He estimated that it would cost over US$65 billion using conventional construction methods, or under US$8 billion using technology from Elon Musk's The Boring Company.

In December, the media reported that the Trump administration had shared a series of documents with European counterparts outlining its vision for Russia's reintegration into the global economy.

In February, Russia's Foreign Ministry stated that it had submitted proposals to the US on removing the "serious barriers" that stand in the way of fully "restoring" relations.

At the same time, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reported that Russia had proposed a US$12 trillion economic cooperation package to the US.