RPT-Russia-Alaska tunnel is far off, if not a pipe dream

(Repeating for wider distribution)

By Dmitry Zhdannikov

MOSCOW, April 18 (Reuters) - The world's longest tunnel between Russia and Alaska is a very distant project if not a dream, Russian officials and firms said on Wednesday after supporters said the $65 billion plan was gathering speed.

The idea to build a tunnel or a bridge across the Bering Straits emerged more than 100 years ago under the last Russian tsar, Nicholas II, but vanished into oblivion during Soviet times amid confrontation with the United States.

It was revived after the collapse of the Soviet Union only to be forgotten again after Russia's 1998 financial crisis.

A decade later, the project's enthusiasts and coordinators say Russia's economic upturn make it possible to build the tunnel in 12 years to directly connect the two former arch-rivals.

The project also involves building 6,000 km (3,700 miles) of transport links, including roads, power lines and oil pipelines to deliver resources from Siberia to new markets.

"It is planned to call on the governments of Russia, the United States and Canada to sign an inter-governmental agreement to study and implement the project," the coordination group said in a statement ahead of a planned conference on April 24.

The project is being coordinated by Interhemispheric Bering Strait Tunnel and Railroad Group, co-chaired by Russian academic Viktor Razbegin.