Russia starts construction of first high-speed railway

MOSCOW, March 14(Xinhua) -- Russia started Thursday to build its first high-speed railway with a designed speed over 250 kilometers per hour, linking Moscow and St. Petersburg.

"The rail line will go over the territory of six regions of the Federation, where about 30 million people are living. This is about 20% of the total population of Russia," Russian President Vladimir Putin said via a video for the groundbr