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Russia Resumes Controversial Ob River Redirection Project, Threatening Siberian Ecosystems
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The Russian Academy of Sciences has resumed its work on a major infrastructure project aimed at partially redirecting the water resources of the Ob River to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, which threatens to cause desertification in Siberia.
This was reported by Ukraine's Foreign Intelligence Service on December 9.
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The initiative is presented as a way to “stabilize the water supply in southern Russia,” but it is essentially a modernized version of the Soviet-era plan to divert Siberian rivers. This project was abandoned in 1986 due to high and unpredictable environmental risks.
“Moscow is aiming to reassert its influence in Central Asia, where its traditional leverage, mainly gas-related pressure, is no longer effective. Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, gas exporters focused primarily on the Chinese market, now have economies increasingly reliant on Chinese and Western investment,” the intelligence service said.
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Financial estimates underscore the scale of the plan: preliminary projections place the cost at $100 billion, though strategic expenses could be considerably higher, taking into account the environmental consequences.
According to the service, the redirection of water flows could lead to desertification in some areas and waterlogging in others, destabilizing hydrological systems and speeding up the melting of Arctic glaciers. Disrupting the water balance in Siberia could trigger large-scale climate changes across much of Eurasia.
Earlier, Russian troops targeted the Pechenihy dam in Ukraine's eastern Kharkiv region, causing significant damage to a key piece of infrastructure and prompting authorities to halt traffic over the dam.
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-dd331d8c22a947184b8776bf6f5e2c03.jpg "Ukrainian Company Ukrspecsystems Plans Major Drone Facility in the UK With $250M Investment")
