September 8, 2007 (LPAC)-- William Burns, the U.S. Ambassador to Russia, has just toured the Russian Far East. Interviewed yesterday by Itar-TASS, he focussed on potential cooperation between Russia's easternmost region of Chukotka, and neighboring Alaska. While several of the questions and answers involved polar bears and tourism, Itar-TASS also asked Burns, "There exists the almost fantastical project of a rail tunnel under the Bering Strait. If it is done, how big will the economic benefit be for Russia and the USA?" Burns replied, "That project is a very interesting idea," before calling it also "difficult and expensive," and saying he was not an expert. "There have been many conferences on this question," said Burns, adding that he would like to look at data on the project's viability.

Burns is a career diplomat, not a political appointee. The most prominent conference on the Bering Strait was the April 24, 2007 event, which heard from Americans Lyndon LaRouche and former Alaska Governor Walter Hickel.

In popular Russia press coverage of the Sept. 6 government meeting on rail development, the Bering Strait project is also prominent. Vechernakaya Moskva headlined, "From Washington to Moscow by Train?" The vision of the Russian rail people, the paper said, is for "an infrastructure link between the USA, Japan, India, and Europe - a kind of overland Suez Canal."