Rosatom: Atomic friend of the West, but also pivot in the war of Putin

Photos Yuri Kochetkov/EPA

The company does not hide that new role. « Rosatom has completely fulfilled the assignments for the national defense, » said director Lichatsjov at a New Year’s meeting in January. A month later he said in the Dumathat Rosatom develops non-nuclear weapons and military equipment « some of which have already gone in series production and are used for the special military operation in Ukraine. »

War company

« Rosatom is literally a war at war, » concluded the Russian nuclear expert Aleksandr Nikitin of the Norwegian environmental organization Bellona recently in one detailed report. 72-year-old Nikitin started his career on a Soviet submarine. After his resignation, he headed for decades of the Russian Bellona offices in St. Petersburg and Murmansk. In 1996 he was accused by Intelligence Service FSB of ‘Spionage’ and fixed for a few months. For years the case pursued him until he got acquittal. « That was in 2000. At that time, Putin was not as scary as now, » says Nikitin by video connection from Oslo. After the large -scale invasion of Ukraine, he took no risk and left for Norway in a hurry.

But President Putin couldn’t wish for a better spoils of war. With six reactors, the central is the largest in Europe. Until the war, ‘Zaporizja’ provided for more than a fifth with the Ukrainian energy requirement. A few months after the intake, Putin signed a decree with which the management of the power station, now set out of operation, came into the hands of Rosatom. It is no secret that Russia wants to connect the annexed plant to its energy network, despite the enormous obstacles. « Everyone dreams of it, » said Rosatom director Lichatsjov at the end of May. Last week reported The New York Times That Russia is busy with the construction of energy cables in the region. Whether the plan succeeds largely depends on the outcome of the negotiations between Kyiv, Moscow and Washington.

That Rosatom, together with the Russian Ministry of Defense, develops and manages nuclear weapons, is no secret. « What is new is that the company now also develops conventional weapons on behalf of the Russian government, » said Nikitin. The company is under the supervision of Putin’s right hand and former Rosatom boss Sergej Kiriënko, who was nicknamed ‘Veerkoning van de Donbas’ because of its important role in the annexation of four Ukrainian provinces. Rosatom also receives generous state subsidies.

Under Kiriënko’s supervision, Rosatom has become one of Russia’s most important state -owned companies in recent years, says Nikitin. « It is a huge, hard -to -detailed network of subsidiaries, industries and scientific institutions, which develop both military and civil technology. Since the invasion has focused on the development of conventional weapons, avoiding sanctions and import replacement. » In addition, he notes in the Bellonar report a « wave of activity » on the Arctic island group Nova Zembla, which may indicate that Russia will test nuclear weapons in the area for the first time in three decades. The location was previously a test area for the nuclear Boerevestnik-Kruisraket and, in 1961, of the mighty hydrogen bomb ‘Tsar Bomba’.

Sanctions

All the prostitute that Rosatom is still largely exempt from Western sanctions and makes considerable profits. Turnover was still 10 billion euros in 2022, last year it could have been an estimated almost 16 billion euros. Part of it comes from exports of nuclear power stations, which Rosatom sells worldwide and that exclusively run on fuel and services of the company. Economic, but especially geopolitics, that is lucrative. « These Russian projects are actually about strategic access to emerging countries, important for their location, raw materials or for political reasons, » said Nuclear expert Mark Hibbs against in 2019 NRC.

Not only in the southern hemisphere, but also in EU and NATO countries, Rosatom has a strong foot on the ground. In the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Hungary, for example, there are power stations with reactors from Sovietmakelij and Rosatom builds two power stations in NATO countries Hungary and Turkey. Europe imported 700 million dollars of Russian uranium products last year, calculated The Brussels think tank Bruegel in April. Although that is a strong decrease compared to the pre -war situation, analysts warn of the political influence that the Moscow gives.

That influence is already felt. Countries such as Hungary and Slovakia, and also France, lobbying against sanctions on nuclear energy. That makes it difficult for Brussels to reach consensus on ending on dependence on Russian nuclear energy. In April the European Commission presented an ambitious step -by -step plan To reduce energy dependence. The plan remains vague about concrete objectives on the nuclear level.

Ironically, the income from Russian nuclear fuel for the EU and the US in 2023 almost tripled compared to 2021. This was due to the rise in the uranium price, a hamster effect as a result of the sanction threat, and the renewed popularity of nuclear energy in the fight against climate change. Still found Bellona across the board in 2024 is a strong decrease.

In the meantime, the ‘non-military’ companies under the Rosatomparaplu still fully use their exceptional position to support the Russian war industry. That double -hearted Western policy is a thorn in the eye of the Ukrainian government and environmental organizations. In 2023, Greenpeate Director Pauline Boyer called the practice to the AFP news agency « Outrageous ». Russian atom researcher Aleksandr Nikitin is also surprised by the slow action of the EU. « There is no consensus among European leaders. Rosatom should be at the top of the sanction list, but after three years of war it is still the last in line. »

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