Paul Goble
Staunton, May 28 – Officials and businesses in the Sakha Republic (Yakutia) and the Magadan Oblast continue to push for the construction of new railroads in that enormous region but neither Moscow nor Beijing currently appears interested in spending the enormous sums such projects would cost, Yuliya Fursova says.
When Putin began his expanded war in Ukraine in 2022, the Siberian Economist journalist says, Moscow removed such projects from its plans over the next decade or more; and China after signing a letter of intent has since done the same, with neither apparently ready to back such projects (sibmix.com/?doc=21390).
But in the hopes of forcing one or the other or both to do more and to help local entrepreneurs who are building smaller lines there, officials in the two federal subjects of Russia’s northeast, a region which suffers from a severe shortage of transportation infrastructure have continued to meet and press their case, so far unsuccessfully.
According to Fursova, this means that the region will stagnate and prevent the Russian Far East from developing at anything like the past that Moscow and presumably Beijing want. (For background on this debate, see https://sibmix.com/?doc=4576, https://sibmix.com/?doc=7714 and https://sibmix.com/?doc=14759).
What makes this case especially intriguing is that it is a rare example of a non-Russian republic working hand in glove with a predominantly ethnic Russian region to press Moscow and as an alternative Beijing to help both. That kind of cooperation, if it spreads, will present the Russian capital with problems and the Chinese one with opportunities.
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