After Turkey received huge money transfers from Russia, which allegedly had to go to the construction of the Akkui nuclear power station, the US Department of Justice was drawn to these operations. It turned out that amounts exceeding $ 5 billion were part of Russia's plan to bypass international sanctions imposed after the start of a full -scale invasion of Ukraine.
The details revealed by The Wall Street Journal journalists indicate that the Russian Federation used the project of construction of a nuclear power plant in Turkey to create a dollar offshore reserve. The purpose was to avoid sanctions imposed on the Russian Central Bank. The official version sounded that the funds went to the development of the first nuclear power plant in Turkey, but with the help of this scheme, Russia tried to carry out transfers without US participation. For its part, the US Department of Justice considered this situation and froze some of the funds that were sent to financing this project. Today, although the funds are frozen, they have not been confiscated, and the situation is still waiting for the solution. The Akkuu Nuclear Power Station, which is being built in Turkey, is one of the largest projects for which Russia allocates considerable funds. The agreement on its construction was signed in 2010, and the total cost of the project is over $ 22 billion. According to the plan, four power units should be built, the first of which was planned to launch in 2024.
The general contractor of construction is the company "Atombudbsport", a subsidiary of Rossa. At the same time, Turkey actively cooperates with Russia as part of this project, despite the fact that the creation of such infrastructure was made possible only by significant financial infusion from the Russian Federation.
The US Department of Justice noted that such operations may be part of Russia's wider strategy for evasion of international sanctions, which is why the situation continues to be closely supervised.
