Sakhalin is an elongated island located in the Pacific Ocean. In the Russian Far East (between 45°50' and 54°24'N). Together with the Kuril Islands, it forms the Sakhalin region, the capital of which is Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk.

The island has a length from north to south of 948 km, with an average width of several tens of kilometers. The area of ​​the island is 76,400 square kilometers, making it the 23rd largest island in the world.

Sakhalin Island is within walking distance of the Asian continent, from which it is separated by the Tatar Strait; in the northern part, the distance to the continent narrows to about 7 km. In the south, the La Perouse Strait is separated from the Japanese Hokkaido. The northern point of the island is Cape Elizabeth, and Cape Crillon is the southernmost point.

The territory of the island is mostly mountainous, with the exception of the northern part, where the northern lowlands begin. Central and southern mountains mainly elongated in the meridional direction, the largest of which is the Western chain. In the Eastern chain, Mount Lopatina (1609 m) is the highest point of the island. There are no major rivers on the island.

Climate

Enough on Sakhalin Island low temperature, for its latitude, this is due to cold sea currents that carry cold to the shores of Sakhalin, the western shores of Sakhalin are the most exposed to cold.

The island has very cold winters, in January the temperature fluctuates between -18°C and -25°C in the north and between -6°C and -12°C in the south. The rise in temperature is very slow, due to the proximity of cold seas, so spring comes late, about three weeks later than on the mainland. Most hot month of the year, usually August, when average temperature is between 11°C and 16°C in the north and between 16°C and 20°C in the south.

Population

At the beginning of the 20th century, about 32,000 Russians (of which 22,150 were deported) lived on the island along with several thousand natives. Currently, Sakhalin has 673,000 inhabitants, of which 83% are Russians. The 400,000 Japanese who lived in the southern part of the island were forced to take refuge in Japan after World War II. The capital, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, which has nearly 200,000 inhabitants, is home to a small number of Koreans who were brought here during World War II to work in the coal mines.

Popular science film about the nature of Fr. Sakhalin, ecology and life of indigenous peoples

Even after the Crimean project, the bridge to Sakhalin is surprising: it will be built in the middle of “nothing,” says a federal official. In addition to the crossing in the area of ​​the Nevelskoy Strait, which is only 7 km long (the narrowest isthmus in the Tatar Strait), it is necessary to build access roads to Komsomolsk-on-Amur and the Nysh station on Sakhalin, Minister of Transport Maxim Sokolov explained to TASS: only 500 km of railway .

Sokolov estimated the construction of a bridge with access roads at 500 billion rubles. in 2013 prices. This is approximately 615 billion rubles. in 2Q 2017 prices, PwC partner Dmitry Kovalev calculated. Initially, the amount was lower: in June, Putin estimated the cost of construction “lower than the Kerch bridge, about 286 billion”, stipulating that the estimates are preliminary and do not include access roads. The cost of the Kerch bridge is 223 billion, but with the cost of security, land purchase and entrances to the bridge - more than 300 billion.

The representative of Rosavtodor is categorical: Putin earlier (it was not possible to get a comment from his press secretary yesterday) had in mind the railway bridge, not the road bridge. “We are adjusting the feasibility study (feasibility study), it is ready,” Alexander Misharin, First Vice President of Russian Railways, told TASS. The adjustment will be completed in December, says a person close to Russian Railways. Representatives of the Ministry of Transport and Russian Railways declined to comment further.

The cost of building a bridge and 500 km of a double-track railway is up to 500 billion rubles, estimates Mikhail Blinkin, director of the Institute for Transport Economics and Transport Policy at the Higher School of Economics. Given the difficult conditions - a difficult climate, high seismic activity, poor infrastructure development or its absence - the amount is quite adequate, says Dmitry Baranov, a leading expert at Finam Management, it may be necessary to create a consortium.

The Kerch bridge, with which Putin compared the bridge to Sakhalin, is structured as a state order, the only contractor is Stroygazmontazh by Arkady Rotenberg. Stroygazmontazh could also take on the bridge to Sakhalin - it will need to take on the capacities that will be freed up after the completion of the Kerch bridge, a consultant on infrastructure projects argued in June. It is premature to talk about the participation of Stroygazmontazh in the construction of a bridge to Sakhalin before the project appears, its representative says, in addition, the company is focused on the construction of the Kerch bridge, this is a priority project.

The railroad will pay off only if integrated project to Hokkaido, Blinkin notes. The corridor will have special meaning, only if the transition to Hokkaido is built, Sokolov also admits, will this be a construction site for the next decade.

2.5 million people live in Crimea, and 500,000 live on Sakhalin, and there is no such need for the mobility of people and goods - it is expensive, meaningless, in a sparsely populated region, says Infranews CEO Alexei Bezborodov, with this money you can connect with each other, bypassing Moscow, many regional centers by improving the economic interaction of the regions. The amount of 500 billion rubles. significantly more than many federal budget expenditure items in 2017, including for healthcare, is comparable to spending on education. economic sense not in the construction of the bridge, agrees the director of the regional program of the Independent Institute social policy Natalya Zubarevich. Japanese business traditionally uses tanker transportation, she argues, especially since a bridge is simply not needed to Sakhalin, where it would be more useful to develop a ferry connection with the island and roads in the north of Sakhalin. This is primarily a political project - to connect Sakhalin with the mainland, she concludes.

Island Japan, with the help of Russia, is capable of turning into a continental power. At least, this is exactly the turn used by Deputy Prime Minister Shuvalov, speaking about the possibility of building a bridge between Sakhalin and Hokkaido. But if the meaning of this gigantic project for Moscow is to some extent visible, then for Tokyo its effect is far from being so obvious.

Russia and Japan are discussing the construction of a bridge between Hokkaido and Sakhalin, First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said.

“We seriously suggest that our Japanese partners consider the construction of a mixed road-railway crossing from Hokkaido to the southern part of Sakhalin. At the same time, we are close to starting our part of the work - bringing the railway to the Pacific coast and building the same complex transition from the mainland to Sakhalin. In this case, this will provide additional opportunities to use our railway infrastructure, and Japan will become a continental power," the First Deputy Prime Minister said, speaking at an economic forum in Vladivostok, Interfax reports.

“Is it possible to do this? Perhaps, with modern technology, it is not even so expensive. And we are seriously discussing this with our Japanese partners,” he added.

Shuvalov is talking about two bridges. One should connect Sakhalin Island with the mainland through the Nevelskoy Strait, the other - Sakhalin Island with Japanese island Hokkaido across the La Perouse Strait.

The idea of ​​this project has been discussed for a very long time. The connection of Sakhalin with the mainland was dreamed of even under Stalin. Then these plans looked fantastic, but modern technologies a lot has changed. Russia has built a bridge in Vladivostok to Russky Island and is already very close to the appearance of the Kerch bridge connecting the Crimean peninsula with mainland Russia. Various options for connecting Sakhalin with the mainland were discussed: from the possibility of laying a tunnel or a dam with a navigable channel to a bridge crossing in various combinations.

Why was the decision to build the Kerch bridge so quick, but the Sakhalin-mainland bridge has not yet been built? The problem is in the economy. With the Crimean bridge in this regard, everything is very clear - it will become a real impetus for economic development peninsula, no one doubts the prospects for growth in traffic. And, of course, the connection of Crimea with the rest of Russia is extremely important from a political point of view.

The appearance of the mainland-island transition will no doubt accelerate the development Khabarovsk Territory And Sakhalin region, these are new jobs, tax revenues, etc. Now all goods and food products are delivered to Sakhalin by sea, so their cost is much higher than the average for Russia. However, Sakhalin is not Crimea, the local cargo turnover is much more modest. The appearance of a bridge or a tunnel to the mainland will increase transportation along the Selikhin-Nysh line to 9.2 million tons per year. Given the cost of the bridge, this is not enough.

The bridge itself across the Nevelskoy Strait will cost 286 billion rubles, which is almost 60 billion more than the construction of the Kerch bridge (228 billion rubles). However, this is not the final cost. The project is expected to lay railway from the Selizin station, on the Baikal-Amur Mainline near the city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur, to the Nysh station, located on Sakhalin Island. With this in mind, the total cost of the project may rise to 400 billion rubles or even more.

If Sakhalin is connected not only to the Russian mainland, but also to the Japanese island of Hokkaido, then a Japan-Russia-EU transport corridor will be created. In this case, transportation can increase several times - up to 33-40 million tons per year, and this is another story. In this scenario, the project can give economic effect not only for the Sakhalin Region and the Khabarovsk Territory, but for the whole of Russia. And even, perhaps, it will pay off, although in decades.

Technically, the task of building a bridge across the La Perouse Strait, although not easy, can be solved with modern technologies, says Aleksey Kalachev from the Finam Group of Companies. It will be a bridge almost 43 km long, but China has experience in building bridges and is longer. Another thing is that there are no ocean structures of this length in the world, especially in the harsh conditions of the Sea of ​​​​Okhotsk, Kalachev notes. The average depth in the strait is 20–40 meters, the maximum is 118. In winter, the strait is covered with ice.

But the main obstacle is the high cost. Back in 2013, the Sakhalin-Hokkaido bridge was estimated at 400-500 billion rubles, and now, Kalachev says, probably one and a half to two times more. Considering that the construction of the Sakhalin-mainland crossing will also be required, the final cost of the project may turn out to be many times higher. That is, in total, more than 1 trillion rubles may be required for two bridges, and Russia will have to take on a significant part.

And it is not clear where Russia will be able to get hundreds of billions of rubles for the construction of these bridges, even if the funding is divided in half with Japan. Russia is already spending a lot on infrastructure in preparation for the World Cup and the construction of a bridge to Crimea. “Besides, there is simply no such capacity in the “box” of the joint Reserve Fund and the National Welfare Fund and will not be in the coming years. All expenditure items have already been scheduled in advance,” says Anna Bodrova from Alpari.

But the most important thing is that

Japan's interest in this project is not as obvious as Russia's.

Japan gets direct rail access to all Eurasian countries. It is expected that this route for delivering cargo to Europe will be twice as short, and delivery times will be reduced by a factor of three. So, by sea, the cargo travels 21 thousand km in 40 days, and, for example, along the Trans-Siberian Railway through the port of Vostochny, the delivery time is reduced to 18 days.

However, it is more efficient to transport large loads and over long distances by sea. “Sea container ship holds from 260 (the smallest) to 18 thousand TEU (standard 20-foot containers). 4 vessels with a capacity of 21,000 TEU each are already being built in the world. And on the longest freight train you will not load more than 140 of these containers. It is faster by train, but by sea it is more and cheaper per unit of goods,” says Aleksey Kalachev. Rail freight transport, and even more so road transport, can only be more efficient over shorter distances.

“Japan's cargo turnover with Sakhalin, of course, is more convenient to provide by direct rail than by sea. However, its volume is unlikely to be able to recoup such grandiose costs that this project will require,” Kalachev doubts. Before the implementation of this idea, Japan has not yet matured, he concludes.

“If you have money, such a bridge can be built, and it will stand as majestic as the bridge to Russky Island, for example. But the demand for such infrastructure is very low, and Moscow cannot afford the payment for ambitions, ”Bodrova agrees.

Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov spoke about Russia's large-scale infrastructure plans in the Far East.

“We invite our Japanese partners to consider the possibility of building a mixed road-railway crossing from Hokkaido to the southern part of Sakhalin,” he said on the sidelines of the WEF-2017.

At the same time, according to , Russia is close to starting its part of the work -

bring to the coast Pacific Ocean railroad and build "the same difficult transition" from the mainland to Sakhalin.

The First Deputy Prime Minister is confident that this project will give Russia the opportunity to make additional use of its railway infrastructure, while making Japan a "continental power".

The project plan includes the construction of a railway network on Sakhalin. According to Shuvalov, the project may turn out to be "not very expensive" due to the use of modern technologies in construction.

The Minister of Transport of the Russian Federation said that the volume of investments in the creation of a bridge between continental Russia and Sakhalin should amount to about 500 billion rubles.

“The total volume in accordance with the preliminary feasibility study, and now additional research work is underway, will be about 500 billion rubles in the prices of the base year 2013,” the minister told the agency. It is possible that the cost of the project will increase with the implementation of the project, taking into account the markedly depreciated ruble since then.

As Sokolov noted, within the framework of the next budget cycle state programs for the development of the transport system will lay both budgetary and extrabudgetary sources for the implementation of this project.

“Of course, this is a costly undertaking, since from the crossing itself in the Nevelskoy Strait area - this is the shortest isthmus between the mainland and Sakhalin Island within the entire Tatar Strait, its length is only 7 km - it is necessary to build access roads from Komsomolsk-on-Amur to the station on the territory of Sakhalin. The length of these access roads is over 500 km,” the minister explained.

According to Sokolov, this project can be implemented already in the first half of the 2020s.

Earlier, he said that the land crossing project between Russia and Japan requires at least 75% of the budget investment of the total cost.

The first vice president of Russian Railways told TASS that the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport of Japan had also created working group. The partners are working on a project to create a transport crossing between Russia and Japan.

At the end of 2016, it became known that the authorities of Sakhalin were preparing an action plan for joint management of the South Kuriles with Japan in order to submit it for consideration in Tokyo.

“In the near future, a document containing specific steps will be proposed to the Japanese side. The day before, its details were discussed during a working meeting of the governor, a member from the Sakhalin region and the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia, ”the regional government said in a statement on the website.

Some of the initiatives contained in the plan have already been adopted, such as visa facilitation between countries. Now the possibilities of free border movement between the neighboring regions - Sakhalin and Hokkaido are being discussed.

“Business structures representing countries are already demonstrating their readiness for further development mutually beneficial relationship. During the visit of the head Russian state to Japan, Sakhalin concluded a number of agreements with foreign partners,” the statement said.

It has long been considering the possibility of building a gas pipeline to Japan. So far, this initiative has not been implemented due to a number of obstacles.

In 2014, a gas pipeline from Sakhalin to Hokkaido was discussed ( total length- 1.35 thousand km), the construction cost was estimated at $ 5 billion. It was assumed that the main part of the pipe would be built by Japanese companies.

In May 2015, Tokyo Gas proposed to build a gas pipeline with a capacity of 8 billion cubic meters per year from Sakhalin to the central part of Japan. With an increased length (1.5 thousand km), the cost of laying, according to TG estimates, would decrease to $3.5 billion.

But given the high seismic activity of the region, laying a pipe from Sakhalin to Japan is very risky.

The Japanese, however, hope for modern technology. Previously, the laying of underwater tunnels between the Japanese islands was cited as an example.

17:49 — REGNUM

Russia and Japan are discussing the possibility of joint construction of a road-railway crossing that will connect Hokkaido and southern part Sakhalin region. This was stated by the First Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Igor Shuvalov during the third Eastern Economic Forum, reports the correspondent IA REGNUM 6 September.

According to the Deputy Prime Minister, Russia is already ready to begin its part of the work - to bring the railway to the Pacific coast and build a transition from the mainland to Sakhalin.

Such a proposal from the government of the Russian Federation came in connection with the policy of establishing bilateral relations between Russia and Japan. At the end of 2016, the President of the Russian Federation visited the country Vladimir Putin, Russia and Japan agreed on joint economic activities in the Kuril Islands. In particular, they discussed fishing, tourism, healthcare and ecology. There was no talk of a transport connection between the two countries. However, according to Igor Shuvalov, such a project would be beneficial to both countries.

"It will give additional opportunity use our railroad infrastructure and Japan will become a continental power in the process." Shuvalov thinks.

Meanwhile, the opinion of the First Deputy Prime Minister is not shared by all deputies and experts interviewed by the correspondent. IA REGNUM. While some consider such a project an excellent option for attracting foreign investment, others point to its untimeliness and even danger.

Additional investment and Japanese benefit

The construction of a crossing between Hokkaido and Sakhalin will help the development of the Far East, the head of the State Duma Committee on economic policy, industry, innovative development and entrepreneurship Sergei Zhigarev(LDPR).

“I support this idea because the Far East needs investments, Far East should be attractive Zhigarev said.

The joint construction of the transition will be in the interests of Japan - with the help of infrastructure development, the country will be able to ensure its participation in the economy of Sakhalin, Zhigarev is sure.

The Deputy Chairman of the Board of Loko Bank agrees with this point of view. Andrey Lyushin.

“For Japan, this project may be even more important, as it will reduce transportation costs, which means that imported goods, primarily raw materials, will be cheaper. But the prospects for the development of territories in this case will be excellent,” Lushin says.

According to him, the bridge construction project is high-profile and has great potential, but it is too early to talk about its implementation, since so far Japan has not even agreed to a joint construction. In addition, today it is also unclear how costly such a construction will be.

Maybe a better port?

As the First Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation noted Igor Shuvalov, the construction of the Russian-Japanese bridge will not require large expenditures from the budget, since modern technologies will be used in its construction.

Meanwhile, as recalled by a member of the State Duma Committee on Transport and Construction Oleg Nilov(“Fair Russia”), the construction of any bridge is a costly and expensive undertaking, which should be resorted to only if other means of communication and interaction are impossible.

“If we compare transport arteries, then sea transportation in serious volumes is considered the most profitable. Building a bridge is an expensive business, so it is usually built when there are no other options, ” Nilov says.

According to him, it is quite possible that it is much more profitable and expedient to build a high-quality, modern port, instead of paying for the construction of a new crossing.

“We need to compare what the investment of colossal funds in the construction of a road and rail bridge will bring and how it compares with the alternative construction of a powerful and modern port. Only after comparing investments and incomes can a decision be made, ”Nilov is sure.

Wait 20-30 years

First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Economic Policy, Industry, Innovative Development and Entrepreneurship Valery Gartung(Fair Russia) is sure that the construction of the Hokkaido-Sakhalin bridge is at least untimely. According to his calculations, such a project can be taken up in 20-30 years, when Russia solves the problems of transport communication within the country and develops its economic potential.

"We have more important projects. Our infrastructure in many cities is in a deplorable state: many settlements, to which there are no paved roads at all, Hartung says.