Russia approves 1,250-mile highway through its territory which will connect China to Europe under Xi Jinping’s scheme to dominate global trade(Source dailymail.co.uk) Privately financed road will run from the Belarus border to Kazakhstani frontier. Construction has already begun and is expected to take around 12 to 14 years. It is the brainchild of Alexander Ryazanov, former deputy chairman of Gazprom. Russia has given the green light for construction of a 1,250 mile road through its lands amid China’s attempts to revive the ancient ‘Silk Road’ trade route. The privately financed Meridian Highway will run from Russia’s border with Belarus to the frontier with Kazakhstan and will form part of a larger network spanning from Hamburg to Shanghai. 

It comes as part of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s ambitious ‘Belt and Road’ initiative which has seen the Far Eastern superpower invest heavily in other nations’ road networks in an apparent bid to dominate global trade. Once constructed, the road will become the shortest route to move goods between Europe and China.