Stalin’s dream to come true

România liberă reports that "a Russian-Kazakh working group will shortly announce the launch of a project to build 700-km long canal between the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea." The "Eurasia" canal, "will have a profound impact on Central Asian geopolitics, enabling Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Iran to become naval powers, and for Russia to realise Stalin’s dream for a navigable canal that would bring China closer to Europe."

According to the Bucharest daily, "the boon of greater economic and geo-strategic access to Asia will not only be of benefit to the Russians". The 25-billion euro project will also facilitate access to the Caspian Sea oil reserves, and its capacity will be doubled by a future network of motorways to link Russia and China." România libera has calculated "that if the canal attracts just 5% of the current maritime freight traffic between China and Europe, countries on the new route will receive an additional 2.2 billion euros in tax revenue every year." On this basis, the daily points out that the European Union should hurry "to present its long awaited strategy for the Danube, which flows into the Black Sea."