In 2013, Vladimir Putin did not hesitate to promise the construction of a new symbol of the recovery of Soviet expansionism. At that time supported by the Ukrainian president, Victor Yanukovych, he took five years to inaugurate the longest bridge in the territory of the former USSR. A colossal infrastructure of 19 kilometers, which rises 35 meters above the Kerch Strait, which connects the peninsula with the Krasnodar region, and which cost about 3,000 million euros. It is the bridge that this Saturday has suffered serious damage after an explosion and that can cause a harsh Russian reaction.
The small maritime strip of the Kerch Strait is of great geostrategic importance. For the Kremlin, the connection was intended to consolidate Russian naval dominance in the face of territorial discrepancies with Ukraine, which is why Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula in 2014, despite agreeing to declare the strait as international waters.
For Putin, the bridge is a basic piece to impose maritime control between the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea and a key to connect Russia with the Mediterranean Sea, with its four traffic lanes. Thanks to the new connection, the work made it possible to generate a new transport network in Russia, through the Sea of Azov. Hence, the explosion that could have destroyed the infrastructure would have been an irreparable loss for the Kremlin's war interests.
The architectural jewel of the Putin legacy is a great work of maritime engineering that required the construction of more than seven thousand pivots to support the six hundred pillars and two 227-meter arches that guarantee navigation for all types of vessels.
Cars, freight trucks and high-speed trains pass through it. These are two parallel bridges between Chushka Point, on the Taman Peninsula, and Kerch Point, Crimea. Around 40,000 vehicles pass through it every day, 13 million tons of goods and 14 million passengers.
For Ukraine, on the other hand, the Kerch Bridge is the hated symbol of Russian expansion, which began with the Crimean peninsula, which continues to be considered its own territory and that a bridge linking Russia with Crimea is a new violation of sovereignty. and territorial integrity by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
