MOSCOW, October 17. /TASS/. Potential construction of a tunnel under the Bering Strait connecting Russia and Alaska would be attractive to China, but geopolitical risks and costs reduce the potential benefits, experts interviewed by TASS believe.

Earlier Kirill Dmitriev, Special Presidential Representative for Economic Cooperation with Foreign Countries and CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), said that such a tunnel could be built in less than eight years, and its cost would not exceed $8 billion.

He is confident that such a route opens the way for joint resource development while Russian-American projects will create jobs and stimulate the economy.

"The idea of a bridge or tunnel under the Bering Strait is not new, and creating a land crossing between the two hemispheres of the Earth looks extremely tempting. After all, it would mean new changes in geopolitics, new areas for cooperation, including engineering and scientific ones, and the active development of remote regions," Dmitry Zavyalov, head of the Department of Entrepreneurship and Logistics and dean of the Higher School of Economics faculty at the Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, told TASS. He added that it is difficult to draw definitive conclusions about the project's economy.

According to the expert, from an economic perspective, such a facility could only be useful as part of a larger logistics infrastructure, which would have to be built largely from scratch.

"Considering the minimal volume of trade between Russia and the US, the creation of such a land route is very attractive for China, but the scale of the costs, their distribution among the project participants, and geopolitical risks reduce the potential benefits. Furthermore, a situation where a key facility belongs to one party and the main user is another is a definite time bomb," Zavyalov said.

Alexander Firanchuk, a leading researcher at the Presidential Academy's International Laboratory for Foreign Trade Research, believes that, regardless of the current political situation and sanctions, such a project requires significant investment.

"Even setting aside politics and sanctions, the idea of a railway tunnel across the Bering Strait doesn't stand up to basic economic calculations. On both sides of the strait is desolate tundra, devoid of cities, roads, or proper infrastructure. Alaska is cut off from the main US rail network, while Chukotka is thousands of kilometers of permafrost and mountains from the nearest Russian rails," he said.

"Any 'saving' of a couple of days' travel compared to the sea instantly vanishes against the monstrous costs of building thousands of kilometers of new tracks, bridges, and tunnels in the harshest climates on the planet," the expert added.