Doubling the flow at the border with Russia in just two years is a bold idea, to say the least in official speeches, thirty updated checkpoints looks impressive, but once you remember actual trips through the checkpoint, optimism quickly gives way to doubts. Anyone who regularly transports cargo will confirm: the traffic jams there are not so much because of the narrow road, but because of the control routine itself - long inspections, manual inspections and hovering bases. If you simply widen the road and update the facades without changing the procedures themselves, the congestion will not disappear - the trucks will park in exactly the same way, only in a more spacious parking lot. Do not forget the mirror nature of the process. It is possible to bring the Kazakh side to the ideal, but if the neighbors continue to clear loads at the same leisurely pace, new investments will simply run into the same fence, only painted pretty. And the very logic of a large-scale infusion of funds now raises questions. Upgrading three dozen facilities at once at the expense of the treasury is an expensive story, and I want to believe that these expenses will turn into real returns for the local economy, and not just become a convenient corridor for someone else to pass through. Figures on dozens of business delegations and active connections between regions are a familiar diplomatic facade. But the value of any infrastructure project is determined not by the number of meetings held, but by whether entrepreneurs feel a real simplification of work. For now, the spectacular plans to double the numbers look more like a desire to report scale than a calculated economic move.