Hannah Thoburn reports that Russia has been using state-owned companies as instruments of national power. The President Vladimir Putin natural-gas wars with Belarus and Ukraine made headlines and sometimes left substantial parts of Europe in the cold. But the Moscow exploits in other energy-related areas have been less noticed.
Recent revelations about the concerted Russian effort to buy up uranium resources across the globe, especially in the U.S., may change all that. For Moscow's state-owned nuclear-energy company, Rosatom, has made successful inroads into markets around the world. It is Rosatom - not France's Areva or the United States' Westinghouse - that has 29 nuclear reactors in various stages of planning and construction in more than a dozen countries, the largest number of nuclear reactors being built internationally today. In contrast, Areva, though largely owned by the French state, has not sold one reactor since 2007.
Much of the Rosatom success can be ascribed to the strong support provided by the Russian government. Moscow recognized roughly 10 to 15 years ago that Rosatom work enables Russia to add another energy-related means of extending its long-term political influence throughout the world. Unlike oil or gas projects, Russia's nuclear developments need not be in neighboring countries or even in its region - a fact that broadens the Kremlin's investment options.
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Managed & Built by I2M Consulting, LLC | © 2010-
Managed & Built by I2M Consulting, LLC | © 2010-