Komsomolskaya Pravda reports that Putin is meeting with industry leaders to work on updating Russian railway lines in order to bring people from Europe to China quickly.
The well-being of our largest natural monopolies in implementing their investment program will determine and determine the economic, social well-being of collectives and the economic condition of many industries, said Vladimir Putin at a meeting with Russian Railways head Oleg Belozerov , asking them to report on the development of domestic railways.
“In the first 4 months, we have already invested 122 billion, we bought 163 units of traction rolling stock – these are locomotives, these are more than 5 levels of redivision,” Belozerov said . – Our investment programs are almost 2 million people working.
WHERE RZD invests
– Unmanned electric train “Swallow” and a virtual coupling of freight locomotives.
– The transition of the railway track in Sakhalin from Japanese to Russian standard.
– Introduction of quantum communications on the railway
TRAIN FROM CHINA TO EUROPE IN TWO DAYS
“The task you set regarding the speed of advancement in Russia , when the train moves from China to Europe , takes 2,500 kilometers in just two days,” Belozerov boasted of another achievement. – A unique result, and we achieved it.
– Still, your investment program, as I understand it, will be reduced? How much? asked Putin .
– About 200 billion. First of all, we have reduced investments, for example, in design, which can be slightly shifted.
– In the design is possible, I agree. But in the real sector – it is still desirable to reduce it to a minimum, ”the president instructed. – Invest in nowhere, or with great risks should not be. I ask you and your colleagues to carefully analyze once again the opportunities for investment. (source)
Years ago, I was looking into the university system in Russia, and one of the things that you learn is that Russia tends to be very, very slow in her response to internal development, and generally seems to have an almost “reactionary” approach, that instead of being proactive, she tends to be reactive. There are any numbers for this phenomenon, but for the sake of contemporary politics, this seems to be the case.
For years, Shoebat.com has covered how the Americans, Germans, and other European nations have been working aggressively with Middle Eastern, Central Asian, and now South Asian nations to create extensive and redundant railway networks that can bring people and goods from Europe to the Far East. This is going to be a major trend for the future, for just as the railway systems bound the American nation together and created a new wave of economic prosperity, the binding of the Old World by way of high-speed rails will create amazing economic opportunities for those who are ambitious enough to pursue them.
But economics aside, when it pertains to a war, the railways- which all conveniently go around Russia -also serve to isolate Russia while centralizing the strength of those nations who control the other lines. Russia knows that because of this, unless she gets under way with constructing massive railway networks, she may risk in spite of her size becoming further isolated from the world than what she already it, and not to her benefit or protection this time, but to her detriment.
Russia also has a second problem, which is that the railway standards uses for Europe versus Russia differ. I do not have the specifics (I could not find the data set I was looking for), but the simple answer is that the track sizes and shape that Russia uses were particular to the Soviet Union and not International Standards. Think of this as the use of the Imperial versus the Metric system, but while the Imperial system is tied to the American Empire and she will also use the Metric system freely when needed, Russia uses a particular system for her tracks which only work for those tracks made during the Soviet years. Thus German, Turkish, or Chinese trains cannot travel on Russia tracks because of the different standards and there is no way they can be retrofitted to compensate for the difference. Russian trains can also travel on only Russian tracks but not on German, Turkish, or Chinese tracks.
Russia thus has not only to prevent herself from becoming outdated, but also has to basically re-do almost all of her railroad tracks, and given the size of Russia, this is a very difficult task.
A point that I have made many times is that Russia is a master of bluffing but is terrible at lying. She right now is attempting to bluff that she has made significant progress or is working on a sweeping transformation of her railway system, when the reality is that she is in a veritable December 23rd type struggle at a American store trying to buy Christmas presents, except that the only present she is dealing with is not one that she is buying, but one that she will be forcefully given by America, Germany, and possibly Japan in the form of invading armies and powerful bombs that could break Russia up into a series of puppet states, including the isolation from her power base in Siberia to a poor plains nation locked west of the Urals from Murmansk to the Caucasus.
Russia is trying to give the impression of strength, but she is in a lot of trouble, she knows it, and she is trying desperately to fix the problems, if it is not already too late, for America and Germany are already well into Central Asia and given the recent geopolitical work with India, may soon cross into the subcontinent and complete the great project linking east and west in a new Silk Road that has not been seen since the days of antiquity and the time of Christ.