Helsinki’s Backing of Tunnel to Estonia Gives New Impetus to Rail Baltica Plan, Russian Analyst Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, September 14 – Moscow has long opposed Rail Baltica, the plan to build a European-gage rail network between Tallinn and Warsaw, arguing that the size of the economies of the Baltic countries will mean that such a line would never carry sufficient cargo and passengers to make it worthwhile.

            But now that Finland has said it will participate in the project by helping to build a tunnel between Helsinki and Tallinn and that China has indicated it will provide much of the financing for such an enterprise (railtech.com/policy/2019/02/04/finland-to-become-shareholder-of-rail-baltica/ and jamestown.org/program/beijing-reportedly-ready-to-finance-helsinki-tallinn-tunnel/), Moscow’s arguments no longer hold, Vladimir Skripov says.

            In a commentary this week, the Russian analyst argues that a Helsinki-Tallinn tunnel will boost traffic along a Rail Baltica network and make it sufficiently profitable that the EU will join China in funding the project, making its completion almost inevitable and reducing Russia’s influence in the region (ehorussia.com/new/node/19286).

            Moscow’s arguments against Rail Baltica have generally been cast in economic terms, Skripov says; but in fact, many in the Russian capital see the project as being “purely geopolitical and even military strategic.”  The construction of a Helsinki-Tallinn tunnel will bring such concerns to center stage.