[We believe that] this is the world's highest pipeline: there is nothing like it, including in terms of route complexity. We are now preparing documents to apply to the Guinness World Records," Anatoly Tandelov said. The 163-km pipeline will connect the Georgian breakaway province with Russia's North Ossetia, to which it is ethnically and historically tied. Russia is expected to start supplying the self-proclaimed republic with gas later this year, or in early 2008.