President Putin even ran the locomotive at the inauguration of the 19 kilometres of railway bridge between the mainland and Crimea.

Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, opened on Monday a railway bridge from the Russian mainland to the annexation of the Crimean peninsula. The bridge over the Kertsjstrædet has been planned since 1903, but it was not begun before Russia annexed the peninsula in 2014, from Ukraine.

Putin called in a speech to the railway bridge as "tremendously important", and he says that it will affect the entire country's economy.

- With your work, talent, determination and focus has shown that Russia is able to build infrastructure projects worldwide. This is all other things being equal, the longest bridge not only in Russia but also in Europe.

Putin even ran the first locomotive over the 19-kilometer-long bridge on Saturday.

the Bridge was opened for traffic last year.

About 14 million passengers and 13 million tonnes of cargo is expected to cross the bridge in the new year.

Since the annexation of the Crimea has both the european UNION, the UNITED states and a number of other western countries have introduced economic sanctions against Russia.

Russia has the answer with its own sanctions.

Ukraine has been opposed to the building of the bridge to the Crimea, as the ukrainians requires to get again.

The state Russian tv has compared the bridge with a giant togprojekt under the communist leader Leonid Bresnjev in sovjetæraen, where Siberia was linked together with the far eastern areas.

the Authorities in Russia has tirelessly promoted the Crimea, which was a preferred holiday destination in the soviet era, as an attractive, sunny destinations for the Russian people.

/ritzau/AFP