Samvel Karapetyan's Tashir Group may invest US$ 50 million in the construction of shopping malls and exhibition centers in Sochi sea passenger port, reported the "Kommersant". One of city's businessmen said to publication, that the developer is planning to build a shopping gallery, which will house luxury-brand boutiques. And the company representative Marina Gaze confirmed that recently the group has become a co-investor of Sochi port reconstruction project. As she stated, Tashir Group received 2.3 hectares of land for long-term lease. As part of reconstruction project the company intends to build more than 25 thousand square meters of real estate. Boutique galleries will occupy about 7.5 thousand square meters, a multifunctional complex with retail and office space - 6.7 thousand square meters and the exhibition center will occupy 11.5 thousand square meters. Tashir Group didn't disclose the amount of project investment, but experts estimated it about US$ 50 million. According to the publication, the construction financing will proceed from the sale of company's real estate in Moscow.

According to information agency Interfax, on December 22 the vice president of "Tashir Group" Vitaly Efimkin announced, that the company planned to put into operation 11 buildings with total area 600 thousand square meters in 2012. As Efimkin said, 9 of 11 buildings will be shopping and entertainment centers "RIO", 2 of them in Moscow and 7 in other regions of Russia. Another two projects, which planned to be opened in 2011 are the 70 thousand square meters multifunctional recreation complex in "Moscow City" and the "Yaroslavl" hotel with total area of 18 thousand square meters. . According to Efimkin, "Tashir Group" in future may continue to open oceanariums in Russia. It is very successful project, as during the first month more than 250 thousand people attracted the first Russian oceanarium. . "Tashir Group" was founded in 1999. It is development and retailing company and to date manages more than 850 thousand square meters commercial real estate. It should be noted, that the company's turnover for 2011 will be US$ 2.8 billion, while in 2010 it amounted to US$ 1.725 billion.

Russia has announced big plans for a superhighway that would effectively connect all the continents in the Northern Hemisphere, making it possible to travel from New York westward through Russia and on to London without the need for an airplane or a boat. The exact route hasn't been determined yet, but what is clear is that a plan such as this would create the largest, longest superhighway on Earth. The idea, dubbed the Trans-Eurasian Belt Development (TERP), would see a high speed railway and motorway built from Eastern Europe, across Siberia and over the Bering Strait to Alaska. At a meeting of the Russian Academy of Science, the head of the Russian Railways Vladimir Yakunin presented the idea for the Trans-Eurasian belt Development (TEPR). Mr Yakunin has been engaged in the development of the project with academic Gennady Osipov and the rector of Moscow State University, Viktor Sadovnichy. During the meeting Vladimir Yakunin told that the project could link existing networks and supercharge global economic growth. The project would see not only a new train network built alongside the Trans-Siberian Railway but the construction of major roads, pipelines for oil and gas, and the laying of facilities for electricity and water supplies. "This is an inter-state, inter-civilization, project. It should be an alternative to the current model, which has caused a systemic crisis. The project should be turned into a world "future zone", and it must be based on leading, not catching, technologies," he said, according to the Siberian Times newspaper. If the idea is successful, it is expected that could create 10 to 15 new industries, new cities and a huge number of new jobs, as well as further development of Siberia and the Far East. Talking about a rough estimate for the costs of the project he said that it will require trillions of dollars, but insisted the economic returns would outweigh these investments. Today not all countries can provide high-speed railway network needed for this project. In Eastern Europe the European Union is separately drawing up plans for a high speed rail corridor to connect the Baltic States to Western Europe's high speed rail network - which runs through the Channel Tunnel to London. North American passenger railways are comparative undeveloped, however. Plans drawn up by President Obama to develop high speed rail corridors across the United States have stalled amid opposition. Bridges and tunnels spanning the Bering Strait have been proposed since the late 19th century but none has ever been built. The Russian government has expressed public support for a number of proposals in recent years but ground has not been broken on any of them, reported The Independent. China and Russia also unveiled a separate plan last year to connect, as well as a plan for a continent-spanning rail network that could cross the Bering Strait .