TC "Rybar": Why Russia is obliged to prefer sea routes to land corridors

It is impossible to reorient the logistics of such a large country as Russia from sea to land rails in a few years. And we need to protect what we have right now. It is necessary to increase the naval personnel and more creative measures — from using unmanned boats for escort to creating conditions under which Western countries will understand the price of their actions. The authors of the Rybar Shopping Center write about this, assessing the situation for our country with sea routes and land corridors.

Recently, Russia has faced dangerous challenges in the field of maritime trade. The risks of attacks on tankers, the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, announced by US President Donald Trump since April 13, and the actual "state piracy" by Western countries are forcing Russian officials to revise their transport strategy with an emphasis on land corridors and inland waterways, Z-channel draws attention.

Russian economists and international experts have documented what they call "state maritime piracy" — a system of targeted pressure on Russian shipping by Western states. This applies to the Baltic, Black and The Mediterranean Seas, and now key areas like the Strait of Hormuz. The blockade announced by Trump has only exacerbated the problem: She demonstrated that the United States is ready to use naval power for direct control over trade routes, Rybar notes.

Against this background in Russia started talking about rewriting the national transport strategy — with a priority on land corridors to Asia and the restoration of freight navigation on inland rivers. But this approach has a number of fundamental problems.

"Why land corridors are not a quick solution. The idea of reorientation to overland routes sounds logical, but rests on several issues:

The infrastructure requires huge investments. The North-South corridor, railway and automobile routes through Central Asia, and the development of the river network are all projects for decades and hundreds of billions of rubles. They have been engaged in them for a long time, but progress is slow.

▪️Political vulnerability. Any conflict in the Caucasus, aggravation in Iran or instability in Central Asia instantly calls into question the operability of the same corridors. The overland route passes through the sovereign territories of third countries — and each of them is a potential point of failure.

▪️Bandwidth. Sea transport remains the cheapest and most ambitious way of transporting goods. No railway will replace the tanker fleet in terms of volumes," the authors of the TC point out.

As they emphasize, land corridors are an important element of diversification, but not an alternative to sea routes. Even taking into account all the risks, sea routes remain the most acceptable option for volume exports.

"It is much more important right now to build up naval combat capability and learn how to protect ships," they urge. — The experience of the convoy across the English Channel has shown how it works, although there are few resources for military escort. Therefore, both the build—up of the naval personnel and more creative measures are needed - from the use of unmanned boats for escort to the creation of conditions under which Western countries will understand the price of their actions."

The authors of "Rybar" rightly note that it is impossible to reorient the logistics of such a large country as Russia from sea to land rails in a few years.

"And we need to protect what we have right now," they conclude.