Media: Siemens banned Iranian company from supplying turbines to Crimea
The German company Siemens has forbidden the Iranian company Mapna to supply gas turbines to the Russian-occupied Crimea. Three sources close to Siemens, Rostec and the Russian government reported the information to RBC.
According to them, by autumn 2016, Siemens began delaying the equipment delivery after the media had reported information on the turbines’ supply to the Crimea bypassing the sanctions. In this regard, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the government and Rostec to find turbines from other suppliers.
Rostec representatives started negotiations on the turbines’ supply with the Iranian company Mapna, which produced the equipment under a Siemens license. The source close to the German company noted that Siemens lawyers had most likely studied the license on which Mapna was producing the equipment and found no violations in sanctions conditions in its delivery to the occupied Crimea.
In February, Rostec Chief Executive Officer Sergei Chemezov reported that negotiations with the Iranian company were in the final stage but that the contract was not signed in the end. According to one of the publication interlocutors, Siemens warned Mapna that the equipment supply to the Crimea could adversely affect their relationships. The Rostec representative explained that the failure of the talks was due to the lack of mutual understanding on several issues.
Official Mapna and Siemens representatives refused to comment on this information.
At the beginning of July, it became known that Siemens was bypassing the sanctions by delivering the gas turbines to the Crimea. Initially, these turbines were bought for Taman. In response to the turbine incident, Siemens stopped supplying power equipment to Russian state-owned companies.
Siemens filed a lawsuit against three Russian companies: OAO Tekhnopromexport, OOO Technopromexport (TPE) and Siemens Gas Turbine Technologies. Apart from this, the German concern suspended cooperation with Russian state-owned companies from InterAutomatika, who previously owned 45.7% of their shares.
Wirtschaftswoche magazine wrote that Russian President Vladimir Putin had personally promised that the Siemens turbines would not get on the peninsula. The German Ministry of Foreign Affairs admitted that this situation would worsen the relations between two countries.