...Second and fourth President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead...said Wednesday, confirming the long-planned project would go ahead after Russia seized the peninsula.
"Here we need a bridge to take both cars and trains," Putin said at a meeting with his ministers, cited on the Kremlin website.
The bridge would allow Russia to deliver people and cargoes directly to Crimea without going through mainland Ukraine. Currently there is only a basic car and pedestrian ferry service across the 4.5 kilometer (2.8 mile) wide Kerch strait.
Transport minister Maxim Sokolov earlier this week estimated the project would cost a minimum 50 billion rubles ($1.4 billion) and take at least three-and-a-half years.
Ukrainian officials previously put the cost at $1-3 billion.
Sokolov told Putin that Russia was also studying the option of building a rail tunnel under the seabed, where he said there were "complex geological and hydrological conditions."
"We will carry out all these parallel processes as quickly as possible in order to start the construction of the bridge as soon as possible," the transport minister said.
A front man for state monopoly Russian Railways, cited by RIA Novosti news agency, said the company was "ready to take part in developing the project."
'Shovel Ready' projects, yea, I get it. Now what about my NCAA picks photo-op ?