Contractor says Kerch Strait Bridge will be completed on time despite US sanctions
The owner of SGM (Stroygazmontazh, the largest construction company for gas pipelines and electrical power supply lines in Russia), Arkady Romanovitch Rotenberg, who acts as the General Contractor for the construction of the bridge from Kuban to the annexed Crimea, is sure that the U.S. imposed sanctions against the company, SGM-Bridge, will not affect the timing of the project, as stated on the TV channel "Russia 24."
"We were ready for this, and initially suggested that this may happen. Neither the timing nor the construction site will have any effect on the construction of the bridge. We have absolutely no reason to be nervous," Rotenberg said.
Previously, a similar statement was made by a representative of the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation.
On the 1st of September the U.S. Department of the Treasury published a list of new individuals and legal entities sanctioned for activities related to the conflict in Ukraine and the prevention of the previously imposed sanctions. There are 37 items in the list: 17 individuals and 20 legal entities. Building and transport companies involved in the construction of the Kerch Bridge, the Russian Defense firms and the shipping companies operating in the occupied Peninsula are on the sanctions list.
The President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, identified the need to build a bridge across the Kerch Strait immediately after the annexation of the Crimea in March 2014. The bridge was promised to be built by 2018 and put into operation in the summer of 2019. Arkady Rotenberg`s Stroygazmontazh has created a special subsidiary company, SGM-Bridge, that will guide the construction project of the Kerch bridge. The total cost of the construction of a bridge across the Kerch Strait from Russia to the Crimea will be 227.92 billion rubles.