Putin Wants Chinese-Style ‘One Belt, One Route’ Corridor for Russia

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Sept. 8 – For most of the last three decades, Putin has made the development of the Northern Sea Route his focus for the development of east-west trade, while over the same period, Chinese leaders have adopted their “one belt, one route” approach with multiple pathways over land and sea to expand trade between Asia and Europe.

            Now, when the NSR has not lived up to his expectations and when Russia and China are cooperating ever more closely, Russian commentator Dmitry Nefyodov says, Putin is changing his approach and urging the adoption of a Russian analogue to what China has long been doing (fondsk.ru/news/2025/09/08/transarkticheskiy-koridor-rossiyskiy-odin-poyas-odin-put.html).

            Putin does not use the Chinese term. Instead, he calls his analogue the Trans-Arctic Corridor. But there can be little doubt that what China has been doing is his model in that he calls for multiple pathways between Europe and Asia all in the Russia case via Russian territory and involving major expansions in rail lines, highways and riverine transit.

            The challenges of developing such a system are both numerous and large. Not only would such a program require massive investment, something Putin clearly hopes the Chinese and perhaps others will supply, but it would necessitate Russia overcoming the problems it has had up to now with intermodal transportation.

            Shifting cargos from trucks to trains to ships and from riverine ships to ocean-going vessels isn’t easy, and Moscow has had extreme difficulties in overcoming them. Nefyodov describes the enormous tasks that Moscow will face in developing this Trans-Arctic Corridor in detail.

            The prospects that it will work any better than the NSR has – the latter is carrying less than half of the trade now that Putin projected it would by this year – are not great; and consequently, perhaps the most important aspect of this proposal is Putin’s willingness to copy the Chinese and the readiness of Russian commentators to say that is what he is doing.