As a classic project of Sino-Russian cooperation, the Moscow-Kazan high-speed rail has always been a must-talk topic for high-level meetings between China and Russia. President Xi Jinping's just-concluded trip to Russia is no exception.

At 14:00 on July 4, Moscow time, in the Malachite Hall of the Moscow Kremlin, witnessed by Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Putin, China and Russia reached an agreement on high-speed rail equipment manufacturing. Wang Run, chairman of CRRC Changke Co., Ltd., and Pompiansky, chairman of the Russian Sinara Group, attended the ceremony and exchanged texts.

On the morning of July 4, when meeting with Russian Prime Minister Medvedev, Xi Jinping emphasized that Russia is an important partner for China to promote the construction of the "Belt and Road. The two sides should expand the scale of cooperation in the fields of economy, trade, investment, and energy; implement major cooperation projects in the manufacturing industry, strengthen high-speed rail cooperation, and promote the early launch of the Moscow-Kazan high-speed rail project; deepen local cooperation, and give priority to promoting cross-border infrastructure construction, resource development, and modern cooperation. Cooperation in agriculture, production capacity and other fields.

According to an earlier official report from Jilin Province, the alpine wide-gauge high-speed EMU is a high-speed EMU independently developed by CRRC Changke for the Russian high-speed rail market. In 2014, China and Russia signed the "Memorandum of Understanding on Sino-Russian High-speed Rail Cooperation". Since then, CRRC Changke and the Russian Russian Railway Express Trunk Line Company have reached an agreement on the supply of vehicle technology and equipment and localized production in Russia. The high-cold wide-rail high-speed EMU implements the Russian technical standard system, adapts to the high-cold operating environment of minus 50 degrees Celsius and the wide-rail track with a gauge of 1520mm, with a designed maximum operating speed of 360 kilometers per hour and a test speed of 400 kilometers per hour. The whole train is formed by 12 vehicles with a capacity of about 720 people. At present, the two sides of the Russian high-speed rail project are actively negotiating on financing, cooperation methods, technical conditions and other related work, and speeding up test verification for Russia's special requirements such as broad rail and ultra-low temperature. It is expected to complete the development and conduct online operational testing in 2018. The biggest challenge facing Russia's high-speed rail project is the extreme low temperature, which is lower than the operating temperature of minus 40 degrees Celsius in China's domestic high-speed rail. Under extreme conditions, it will reach about minus 50 degrees Celsius. All systems of the train, including the car body, bogie, door system, health system, service facilities are to do some targeted research and development.