President Vladimir Putin has talked with the leaders of parliamentary factions over a fixed connection to Sakhalin island. It is reported that Putin thinks such a fixed connection is important. He said that the subject is on the agenda to talk about, but it is also a very expensive project. He said that Russia needs the bridge to Sakhalin but the connecting roads will cost even more. This is more or less what Svpressa reports on 8 October 2020.

As far as one can remember, such a bridge was first proposed by Stalin decades ago. In more recent times, it was proposed by deputies in 2018 when also the Governor of Sakhalin Oleg Kozhemyako met with Vladimir Putin. The problem is, even two years ago, the estimated cost was 540 billion Rubles. In Russia such projects are always underestimated. Add that the inflation in two years! Very expensive.

In the news outlets, they almost always mention a "bridge" and almost never "fixed connection" the term I use here. I think it is because in Russia people are more used to bridges for such connections. In fact, it was Sergei Ivanov, the special representative of the President of the Russian Federation on environmental protection, ecology and transport who had suggested several years ago that a 51km tunnel was a more feasible option. He had said that it would be similar to Eurotunnel between UK and france. He had also added that there is no problem with technological feasibility but more with the economic feasibility. The population on mainland and on Sakhalin island are scarce and building a tunnel is more a geopolitical decision. Because of Japan and also later China.

https://svpressa.ru/economy/article/278068/