Russia Remains Bottleneck in Western Europe-Western China Railway

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Oct. 17 – Construction of pipelines and railways connecting China and Europe have received enormous attention, but plans for a super highway between the two economic powers have attracted less notice even though the highway, if and when it is completed, may allow goods to move faster than even the railroad promises.

            China completed the 3425 kilometers of this 8445 km route that are on its territory in 2016, but Russia which is responsible for 2233 km and Kazakhstan which has 2787 km of the total have not yet. Kazakhstan has made significant progress, while Russia has made less because of controversies over funding and even the route of this road (ritmeurasia.org/news--2021-11-18--mezhdunarodnaja-trassa-zapadnaja-evropa-zapadnyj-kitaj-nastojaschee-i-perspektivy-57418).

            Moscow promises to have its construction completed by 2024, but it will achieve that goal only if it finds the necessary funding from international banks and overcomes controversies over the route. As originally planned, the route would not link Russian cities in many cases but instead be a direct path from China to Europe.

            Many Russian cities and the Russian government would like to see the route modified so that Russia would benefit domestically while China, which has provided much of the funding so far, prefers the direct and much quicker route. Unless those differences are overcome, the current deadline is unlikely to be met.

.