Arctic Corridor Without Infrastructure: Failure of russia’s Strategic Project

The kremlin has finally given up the construction of the North Siberian Railway, which was supposed to become a key transport corridor for coal exports and securing the Northern Sea Route. The cost of the project exceeded 50 trillion rubles, making it unaffordable for a budget depleted by war and sanctions. Despite being included in the development strategies for Siberia and the Far East, work was repeatedly postponed and eventually halted.

The idea of connecting the Trans-Siberian Railway with Arctic routes failed due to difficult geological conditions and the need to build tunnels on the border with China. “russian Railways”, which is under EU sanctions and has only about 1 trillion rubles in investments for 2026, cannot finance the project. China has also refused to cover the costs.

In parallel, the Northern Latitudinal Railway in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, which was supposed to transport nearly 24 million tons of cargo annually, has also been frozen. Its cost was estimated at 730 billion rubles, but there are no funds in the russian budget.

Thus, the eastern direction – critically important for access to Asian markets – remains without infrastructure, while the rf’s resources are directed not toward development but toward financing the war.