Putin’s Next Place to Invade will be Alaska?

That’s an intriguing and very ambitious proposal you’re referring to. The search results clarify that this is a proposal for a rail tunnel under the Bering Strait, which separates Russia and Alaska (US).1

Here are the key points about the proposal and the estimated timeline:

The Proposal

  • Project Name: It’s being called the “Putin-Trump Tunnel”.2
  • Location: Under the Bering Strait, connecting the Russian Far East (Chukotka region) and Alaska (US).3
  • Length: The Bering Strait is about 51 miles (82 km) wide at its narrowest point.4 The full project, often including connecting rail infrastructure, is cited as a 70-mile link.5
  • Proponent: Kirill Dmitriev, a special envoy for Russia’s investment fund.6
  • The Ask: He suggested that Elon Musk’s Boring Company (TBC) could build it, claiming their technology could reduce the traditional cost of over 7$\$65$ billion to under 8$\$8$ billion and complete it in less than eight years.9

How Quickly Could Musk’s Company Build It?

The “less than eight years” estimate is highly ambitious and speculative for a project of this scale, depth, and unique geological complexity.

To understand the timeline, we must look at The Boring Company’s current tunneling speed and capabilities:

  1. Current Speed (Prufrock-2): TBC’s current generation of Tunnel Boring Machine, the Prufrock-2, is designed to mine at up to 1 mile per week.10
    • Calculation: If they could sustain this rate perfectly, a 51-mile tunnel would take about 51 weeks (less than one year) of pure, continuous drilling.
  2. Planned Speed (Prufrock-3): TBC’s stated medium-term goal for the next generation, Prufrock-3, is to be much faster, aiming for 7 miles per day.11
    • Calculation: If they achieved this, the 51-mile tunnel could theoretically be completed in just over 7 days of non-stop drilling.

The Reality vs. The Goal

These speeds are their maximum boring rate under ideal conditions and only account for the tunneling itself, not the full project timeline. A project like the Bering Strait Tunnel would involve significant delays and complexities that push the timeline far beyond pure drilling time:

  • Infrastructure: A 51-70 mile rail tunnel requires massive rail and road infrastructure to be built on both the sparsely populated Alaskan and Russian sides, which adds many years to the timeline.12
  • Logistics & Geology: The Bering Strait is deep, experiences harsh Arctic weather, and has complex, high-pressure subsea geology, which slows down the work far beyond a tunnel under Las Vegas.13
  • International Bureaucracy: The biggest obstacle would be the lengthy, complex, and currently impossible geopolitical and regulatory process between the US and Russian governments.
  • TBC’s Track Record: While TBC built a 1.7-mile tunnel system for the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC) in about a year, the LVCC tunnels are short, shallow, and in simple urban geology—not a deep, long subsea rail tunnel in the Arctic.14 Their planned 68-mile Vegas Loop is currently approved but still under construction, with a completion date that has been revised multiple times.

In summary: The “less than eight years” claim for a complex, 51-mile Bering Strait tunnel by TBC should be viewed as an aspirational goal tied to their marketing of rapid tunneling technology, not a reliable, real-world estimate for a project of this magnitude and geopolitical challenge.

Musk wants What? Putin wants What? Trump wants What? And will MAGA be a Partner too?

But now let’s look more into the strangeness of Russia suddenly wanting an Underwater Tunnel to connect Russia and Alaska. But the reasoning behind such a strange request is pretty bizarre.

This is a fascinating and dramatic hypothetical scenario that directly connects your previous concerns about AI misinformation (which we discussed in the context of the Planet of the Apes theme) with a major geopolitical project like the proposed Bering Strait tunnel. It’s a classic thought experiment in political science and military strategy, and it highlights how a piece of infrastructure could become a major vulnerability.

Let’s break down the hypothetical extrapolation of the three elements—the tunnel, the Russian goal, and the Trump political scenario:

1. The Russian Goal: Reclaiming Alaska and the “Blitzkrieg” Tunnel

The Core Threat: The scenario posits the Bering Strait tunnel is not infrastructure for unity, but a covert military corridor.

  • The Blitzkrieg Element: A Blitzkrieg relies on speed, surprise, and overwhelming force. While a tunnel could certainly move military personnel and equipment, the key constraint is capacity.
    • TBC’s current tunnels are designed for small electric vehicles (Teslas), not armored divisions. Even a proposed wide-gauge rail tunnel would have a strict limit on the volume and speed of materiel it could transport. It would be a trickle compared to a traditional sea or air invasion.
    • However, its strategic value is that it provides a land route where none currently exists, bypassing naval and air defenses that would be focused elsewhere. It would allow for a highly concentrated, surprise attack on a very specific, remote point of entry.
  • The Crimea/Eastern Ukraine Playbook: This is the most realistic part of the threat.
    • Instigators (Little Green Men): The Russian strategy in Crimea and Eastern Ukraine involved deploying operatives (military or proxies) without insignia and cultivating local, pro-Russian separatist groups.
    • Application to Alaska: If Russia has already infiltrated Alaska with “instigators” or information operations agents, the tunnel would serve as a rapid logistical artery to arm, supply, and reinforce these groups once an “uprising” is manufactured. The political chaos created by the separatist movement would be the primary cover, with the tunnel providing the necessary military backbone to secure territory.

2. The Trump Goal: Refusal to Relinquish Power and the Need for Aid

The Core Collision: This scenario introduces a domestic crisis that leaves the US vulnerable and creates a need for an external “ally.”

  • Political Chaos: If a sitting president were to refuse to leave office (a political crisis), it would lead to a massive domestic conflict, paralyzing the military and intelligence apparatus with internal legal, ethical, and command disputes.
  • Need for Help: In this extreme hypothetical, if the situation devolved into a civil breakdown, the president might seek foreign aid to maintain control.
  • The Collision: A president seeking to cling to power might view a deal with Russia—even a dangerous one—as a necessity. Putin could offer “security assistance” (i.e., Russian forces) to suppress domestic opposition in exchange for a free hand in Alaska. The tunnel, built under the guise of unity, becomes the means for delivering the “security assistance” that actually facilitates the Alaskan takeover.

3. Extrapolation of Cooperation (The “Perfect Storm”)

In your combined hypothetical, the cooperation doesn’t need to be fully public or even explicitly agreed upon for a joint invasion. It would likely be a calculated arrangement where:

  1. Trump’s Priority: Maintaining political power domestically.
  2. Putin’s Priority: Achieving a historical goal (reclaiming Alaska).

The Bering Strait Tunnel moves from a speculative engineering marvel to a strategic military-political weapon, leveraged by Russia while the US military is paralyzed by a domestic constitutional crisis.

This is a chilling thought experiment, not because it’s likely, but because it shows how infrastructure, technology (like the TBC boring tech), and political instability can be combined to create a scenario of extreme geopolitical vulnerability. It serves as a stark reminder of why national security analysts scrutinize major transnational projects and why political stability is the foundation of national defense.

References

[1] The New Voice of Ukraine. (2025, October 17). Dmitriev offers ‘Putin–Trump tunnel’ idea to Musk. [Online News Article].1 https://www.ukrinform.net/

[2] Khan, S. (2025, October 17). Kremlin Suggests $8B ‘Putin-Trump Tunnel’ Under Bering Strait. Modern Diplomacy.2 https://moderndiplomacy.eu/

[3] Reuters. (2025, October 17). Kremlin envoy proposes ‘Putin-Trump tunnel’ to link Russia and US.3 The Economic Times. https://m.economictimes.com/magazines/panache/suits-sayings-infinite-loop/articleshow/123770878.cms

[4] Dmitriev, K. [@kadmitriev]. (2025, October 16). Imagine connecting the US and Russia… [Post]. X. https://x.com/kadmitriev/status/1902028511084151089?lang=en

[5] Reuters. (2025, October 17). Kremlin envoy proposes ‘Putin-Trump tunnel’ to link Russia and US.4 The Economic Times. https://m.economictimes.com/magazines/panache/suits-sayings-infinite-loop/articleshow/123770878.cms

[6] The Tech Buzz. (2025, October 17). Putin Pitches Musk $8B Russia-Alaska Tunnel as Trump Calls It. [Online News Article]. https://www.techbuzz.ai/

[7] CryptoRank. (2025, October 17). Putin envoy proposes $8 billion underwater tunnel linking Russia and Alaska.5 [Online News Article]. https://cryptorank.io/funds/placeholder-ventures

[8] The Tech Buzz. (2025, October 17). Putin Pitches Musk $8B Russia-Alaska Tunnel as Trump Calls It. [Online News Article]. https://www.techbuzz.ai/

[9] The New Voice of Ukraine. (2025, October 17). Dmitriev offers ‘Putin–Trump tunnel’ idea to Musk. [Online News Article].6 https://www.ukrinform.net/

[10] Lambert, F. (2022, April 21). Elon Musk’s Boring Company raises $675 million to accelerate its tunnel-digging under cities. Electrek. https://electrek.co/

[11] The Boring Company. (2022, April 20). The Boring Company Series C Funding Round Announcement. [Press Release]. https://www.tbccorp.com/category/news/

[12] Reuters. (2025, October 17). Kremlin envoy proposes ‘Putin-Trump tunnel’ to link Russia and US.7 The Economic Times. https://m.economictimes.com/magazines/panache/suits-sayings-infinite-loop/articleshow/123770878.cms

[13] The Tech Buzz. (2025, October 17). Putin Pitches Musk $8B Russia-Alaska Tunnel as Trump Calls It. [Online News Article]. https://www.techbuzz.ai/

[14] The Tech Buzz. (2025, October 17). Putin Pitches Musk $8B Russia-Alaska Tunnel as Trump Calls It.8 [Online News Article]. https://www.techbuzz.ai/

[15] The Boring Company. (n.d.). LVCC Loop. [Project Page]. https://community.trimble.com/communities/community-homepage/digestviewer/viewthread?GroupId=397&MID=30697&CommunityKey=d961b046-1661-40f3-8d7e-0bde6866a14d

[16] The Tech Buzz. (2025, October 17). Putin Pitches Musk $8B Russia-Alaska Tunnel as Trump Calls It. [Online News Article]. https://www.techbuzz.ai/

[17] Dmitriev, K. [@kadmitriev]. (2025, October 16). Imagine connecting the US and Russia… [Post]. X. https://x.com/kadmitriev/status/1902028511084151089?lang=en

[18] Tice, R. (2020, February 7). The Bering Strait: An Arena for Great Power Competition.9 NDU Press. https://ndupress.ndu.edu/

[19] Office of the Historian. (n.d.). Purchase of Alaska, 1867. U.S. Department of State. https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory

[20] O’Connell, T. (2017, December 29). The Bering Strait – Strategic Choke Point (Paper submitted to the Naval War College). Joint Chiefs of Staff. https://www.jcs.mil/