Russia has approved a project to build the first high-speed passenger railway line between its two largest cities - Moscow and St. Petersburg, reports "Reuters".
It will be financed with billions of dollars from the state budget, as is clear from a government directive.
Construction of the 679 km railway line will allow Russian-made trains traveling at 360 km/h per hour to reach from Moscow to St. Petersburg in 2-2.5 hours instead of the current 4-5 hours.
The railway will cost more than 2.3 trillion rubles ($25.97 billion) and will be built by the Russian company "VSM Two Capitals" of concession with state and private funds.
The Russian government plans to provide at least 300 billion rubles in loans from the National Welfare Fund at 1% in 2025 and grants of about 328 billion rubles between 2024 and 2038.
Over 580 billion rubles from the National Welfare Fund are needed for the project. The rest of the funding comes from other sources, such as the Russian state banks VTB, "Sberbank" and "Gazprombank", the former Minister of Transport Vitaly Saveliev specified in February.
The head of "Sberbank" German Gref confirmed that he will participate in the financing of the project.
Russia has proposed raising taxes on companies and the wealthy. That could add an extra $30 billion to next year's budget revenue and allow Moscow to increase spending, including on the war in Ukraine.