Prospects of Russia’s nuclear expansion in the context of widening global sanctions.

Today the Russian environmental group Ecodefense presented its new report «Shunning Rosatom«. The report focuses on the impact of global sanctions introduced since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine: Who suspended cooperation with the Russian nuclear industry and who did not, how big the European Union’s dependence is on Russian nuclear fuel supplies, and what kind of consequences can be expected from global sanctions. Read it here.

Though a state-owned corporation, the Russian nuclear giant Rosatom, unlike numerous Russian entities under state or private control, has not been directly hit with sanctions following Russia’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine. However, calls to cut ties with the Russian nuclear industry have been made in Europe and the U.S., and certain ventures pursued by Rosatom outside Russia’s borders have suffered since the start of the war.

Just like the billions Russia is still receiving from selling its gas, oil, and coal abroad, the money earned by Rosatom – a conglomerate of some 350 companies both offering commercial nuclear power products and services and overseeing production of nuclear weapons in Russia – eventually helps finance Russia’s war machine. And just like the sanctions the West has imposed and plans to expand against the Russian gas, oil, and coal imports, stopping the Russian nuclear industry from continuing to earn money in Europe – even as the Kremlin continues to rain bombs and terror on a European country and threatens the world with nuclear annihilation – may help stop the brutal and unprovoked aggression Moscow has unleashed, the report says.