KOLESNIKOVKA (Sputnik) — On Monday, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed a document on the construction of a railway line to allow Russian trains to circumvent Ukrainian territory on their way to the country's south.
"This is a strategic project, in a short time — before the end of 2017 — we will build 122 km of a double-track electrified railway, five electrical substations," Toni said.
According to Toni, Russian Railways is going to spend 6.5 billion rubles ($99,000) on the project in 2015 and 18 billion rubles in 2016.
Following the reunification of Crimea with Russia in March 2014 and the escalation of the Ukrainian crisis later last year, Moscow's relations with Ukraine deteriorated. Kiev has blamed Russia for interfering in its internal affairs, the allegations Moscow had repeatedly denied.