FROM EIR DAILY ALERT
Progress Towards Moscow-Beijing High-Speed Train
June 7, 2018 (EIRNS)—Russia’s President Vladimir Putin answered almost 80 questions (out of 2 million received) over four hours in his annual “Direct Line with Vladimir Putin” program yesterday. Only the very beginning of the Q&A has been translated and transcribed so far. Putin’s first remarks dealt with the progress of the Russian economy in view of his approximation of Lyndon LaRouche’s “potential relative population density” concept, especially featuring the 3.8% rise in real incomes over the year, the rise in life expectancy, and the planned increase in life expectancy to 80 years by a specific deadline. Part of the latter plan is a trillion ruble ($16.16 billion) fight against cancer between now and 2024, TASS reported.
In answer to a question from a Chinese schoolboy, Putin said that he expects the Russian government to make a positive decision to cooperate with China on a high-speed rail system linking Moscow with Kazan, Russia, TASS reports. (Although TASS did not mention it, our own readers know that the Moscow-Kazan link is the first part of a planned high-speed train from Moscow to Beijing.) President Putin confessed that he had not “travelled yet on trains in China,” where he will land beginning June 7, 2018 for a summit with President Xi Jinping and the June 9-10 Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit. “I know that such a [train] trip is scheduled for me, and President Xi Jinping and I will be able to estimate China’s achievements in that field in the near future,” he said.
