Project Sword
Wen Sister Xiong. Putin chose Chukotka, the easternmost part of Russia, for his first domestic visit in 2024.
According to the Global Times, on January 10,Putin arrived in the city of Anadyr, the capital of the Chukotka Autonomous Region, on a special plane for inspection. It was Putin's first working visit to the region, where he visited a four-season greenhouse cultivation project and met with the city's citizens.
Putin inspected Chukotka).
Chukotka is the easternmost point of Eurasia and the northeasternmost point of the artificially defined Earth (its eastern side is the date line)., which is 9 time zones away from Moscow and less than 100 kilometers away from Alaska across the Bering Strait. Putin's choice of this place for his first visit of the new year is of extraordinary significance.
Data map: Chukotka aerial view).
Personally, back in 2017, he said that he had not been to all regions of Russia and promised to go to Chukotka. Now,He made good on his original promiseThis is a boost to his leadership and upcoming success.
In addition,Travel to places less than 100 kilometers from the United StatesIt is also Putin and his ruling team who are demonstrating Putin's bravery, which will also help him continue to increase his popular support.
Putin is very popular with the Russian population)
However, what Putin values most is its important geographical location.
Due to its location in the Far East and the fact that most of the area is within the Arctic CircleFor Russia's current plans for the development of the Far East and the Arcticare of great significance.
Chukotka geographical location).
Putin said during the inspectionChukotka concentrates a large number of problems, all of which are closely related to Russia's interests. Judging from public information, the natural scenery here is wonderful, and there are abundant resources such as coal, oil, natural gas, gold, tungsten, etc., but the harsh climate and large areas of permafrost have always restricted the development here.
In terms of climate, the average temperature is around -4 to -14 throughout the year, and the average temperature in January can reach -18 to -42. At the time of Putin's visit, the temperature was relatively mild, but it was also about -27. Only in the summer months of July does the average temperature reach 4 to 14 . So, this area is as high as 72150,000 square kilometers, accounting for 42% of the vast land,No railroad was builtThe eastern sea route to Primorsky Krai is also open only in the second half of each year, while the northwestern sea route is connected to the Arctic route.
Data map: Chukotka scenery).
Chinese know the importance of transportation to the development of a region, that is, we often say "to get rich, first build roads", but in the face of the vast permafrost here, Russians must calculate the input-output ratio if they want to build roads. In the early years, Russia has always been "looking westward", and there is not much interest in building here, coupled with the difficulty of developing permafrost, the average population density here is only 007 square kilometers, no matter how you count it, it's a loss-making business.
But this is clearly different. After falling out with the West, the Far East and the Arctic have become new growth points for Russia, and Chukotka will surely become a key region for Russia's future development.
Residential areas of Chukotka).
And for China, it will also be a place with unlimited business opportunities.
For example, the greenhouse cultivation project that Putin visited is unique in the Chukotka region, which can now produce 79 tons of vegetables per year, and for the first time successfully cultivated tomatoes. At present, their main costs are rent, expensive equipment, spare parts and difficulties in transporting agricultural supplies, and it is difficult to recover costs due to the sparse population (79 tons of vegetables is almost 1.5 of the annual sales of local vegetables), but for the Chinese who have carved "growing vegetables" into their genes, these difficulties seem to have a solution.
Putin visited the greenhouse cultivation project).
The other is the construction of transportation facilities in the tundraThis is the strength of the "infrastructure madness". After all, we have experience in building railways and roads in the permafrost of the Tibetan Plateau, and China is already recognized as the world's leading country in infrastructure technology. If the Russian side is interested in cooperating, we will naturally not refuse. I don't know if Putin will put these development projects on the agenda of Russia as soon as possible after the inspection, adding new vitality to Sino-Russian cooperation.