Completely unnoticed in the Western media, a Russian transport initiative holds promise to revolutionize the maritime carriage of products throughout Eurasia, including the oil and natural gas so hungrily sought by European consumers.

The good news, according to Russia's Sea and River Transport Federal Agency head Alexandr Davydenko, is the Russian Federation is preparing to open the country's vast network of rivers and canals to foreign shipping.

The bad news is the dilapidated state of many of the facilities.

Davydenko said the projected date for foreign access to Russia's internal waterways was late 2009. International considerations have played a considerable part in the decision, as the access was one of the key conditions for Russia to join the World Trade Organization.

The transport potentials of the Russian offer are staggering as the Russian Federation has an intricate network system of more than 62,000 miles of interlinked rivers, canals and waterways that not only link the Black Sea with the Caspian, but with the Baltic and White Seas northwards to the Arctic Ocean.