For The Fifth Time In 8 Years, Putin Called For A Bridge To Sakhalin To Be Built

• 30.04.2026, 21:13

The case never moved forward.

Vladimir Putin, during a meeting with representatives of Russia's indigenous minorities, reiterated the need to build a bridge to Sakhalin. This is Putin's fifth such promise in the past eight years. "It's an expensive story. It's not even that the bridge is expensive, it's that the adjacent infrastructure to this bridge is the most expensive thing, but it still needs to be done," he said (quoted by RIA Novosti).

Putin added that Russia is now implementing large-scale plans to develop the Far East, Siberia and the Arctic, and the interests of the people who have lived in these territories for centuries are, in his words, "an absolute priority."

Putin first raised the topic of building the crossing in the summer of 2018 at a meeting with then-Sakhalin Region Governor Oleg Kozhemyako. The head of state then instructed the Cabinet of Ministers to "work on the issue," admitting that first it was necessary to "look at the economy."

In October 2020, at a meeting with the leaders of parliamentary factions, Putin called the topic important, emphasizing that "this issue has not been taken off the agenda." In April 2024, at a meeting with Sakhalin Oblast Governor Valery Limarenko, Putin emphasized for the third time: "It is necessary to connect Sakhalin with the mainland by a bridge crossing. And the development there will proceed at a different pace."

Then the head of the region estimated the cost of the crossing at 300 billion rubles, and in his opinion, the same amount should be spent on the construction of approaches to it. In June 2024, Limarenko estimated the construction of the bridge at 800-900 billion rubles.

In the summer of 2024 - for the fourth time - Putin said at a meeting with residents of the Far East that the project has not been forgotten. "We have not forgotten about the bridge to Sakhalin. This is a separate work, a big, capital-intensive one, but nevertheless all this is not forgotten and not thrown away," he said.