After roughly 14 years of construction work, one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most important infrastructure projects – a 670 kilometre roadway between Moscow and St Petersburg – is now open. Putin inaugurated the last section of the motorway – a bypass around the provincial town of Tver – by driving a Russian-produced Lada Aura car. The last section to be built includes a 738-metre long bridge that spans the upper reaches of the Volga River. The plans to relieve the old route between Russia’s most important cities go back a long way. The route passed through many villages and was only…