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Consortium of German companies to cooperate on Moscow-St. Petersburg high-speed railway

The consortium includes Siemens, Deutsche Bank, Deutsche Bahn and others

© Piotr Kovalev/TASS

MOSCOW, August 28. /TASS/. Russian Railways and the consortium German Initiative for the Development of High-Speed Rail Lines in Russia, which includes Siemens, Deutsche Bank, Deutsche Bahn and others, have signed a memorandum of cooperation on the design, financing and implementation of the Moscow-St. Petersburg high-speed railway, TASS reports from the signing ceremony.

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General Director of Russian Railways Oleg Belozyorov and CEO of Siemens Mobility GmbH Sabrina Soussan signed the document.

"The parties agree to develop comprehensive cooperation in the field of design and consulting, production and supply of equipment, investment and financing for the implementation of the Moscow-St. Petersburg high-speed railway. It is assumed that the high-speed railway project will be carried out based on public-private partnership mechanisms," the Russian Railways issued a statement.

Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Maxim Akimov said on June that the preliminary estimate of the cost of the Moscow-St. Petersburg high-speed railway line construction stands at 1.5 trillion rubles ($22.46 bln). In April, Russian President Vladimir Putin approved the start of designing the Moscow-St. Petersburg high-speed railway line project. Prior to that, the construction of an 800-kilometer-long high-speed railway line between Moscow and Kazan was discussed. It would have allowed reducing the travel time between the cities from 11.5 to 3.5 hours.

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Serbia’s Vucic suggests Trump may bring ceasefire in Ukraine closer

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