Russians to build Nicaraguan canal?

Before the Panama Canal was completed in 1914, U.S. and European interests were intrigued with the notion of constructing a canal across Nicaragua that would connect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. That notion fell by the wayside; most famously in 1902 a stamp depicting the eruption of Nicaragua’s Momotombo volcano swayed Congressional opinion towards the then-Colombian province of Panama.

Discussion of a Nicaragua Canal has been few and far between though in 2004 then-president Enrique Bolaños declared that the “galloping increase in world business demands another canal in addition to a widened Panama Canal.”

The latest talk of an inter-oceanic canal comes from the Russian media, which has claimed that Nicaragua’s government has requested that Russia help build the waterway. The project would cost at least $18 billion and would be able to accommodate ships bigger than those that pass through the Panama Canal. Yet the warning of one Russian official was reminiscent of so many failed pledges of the past:

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev accepted over a year ago his Nicaraguan counterpart's proposal to study the possibilities of participation by Russia's state and private sectors in an enterprise to build a canal through Nicaragua.

However, Sergei Aristov, a Russian deputy transportation minister, gave on Monday a less optimistic remark on the proposal, saying that Russia must first review its foreign financial ambitions in the light of the ongoing global financial crisis.

"Considering the financial situation in the world, as well as the beginning of the Panama Canal reconstruction, the given issue needs additional elaboration taking into account the altered economic conditions," Aristov said at a meeting with Nicaraguan Deputy Foreign Minister Coronel Kautz.

Plans have been underway for a Panama Canal expansion that is supposed to be done by 2014 and that will add an extra channel for ships to travel through.

Image- BBC News (2006 illustration of a proposed route for an inter-oceanic Nicaragua Canal).
Online Sources- Wikipedia, The Register, ITAR-TASS, RIA Novotsi, LAHT