United Kingdom imposes sanctions against some Rosatom structures

The United Kingdom has imposed sanctions against three structures of the Rosatom state corporation and two individuals, the UK Foreign Office said on Tuesday.

"In particular, the sanctions list includes Rosatom Energy Projects, REIN Engineering and Rusatom Overseas, as well as the general director of Rosatom - Energy Projects Andrei Rozhdestvin and the president of Rusatom Overseas, Ilya Vergizayev," the statement reads.

The basis for imposing the sanctions was attempts to secure contracts for construction of nuclear power plants abroad and thereby open up additional sources of income for the Russian Federation and compensate for the drop in oil revenues, the Foreign Office said.

Previously, various structures of Rosatom fell under Western sanctions. In early 2024, the CEO of Rosatom, Alexei Likhachev, and his deputies were added to the U.S. SDN list. Prior to this, U.S. sanctions targeted, among others, the Russian carbon fiber manufacturer Umatex, Rusatom Overseas, Atomflot, Rosatom Digital Solutions and Rosatom Microelectronics. The UK imposed sanctions against Rosatom CEO Alexei Likhachev, Atomflot, Renera and Rosatom Additive Technologies.

In addition, the U.S. imposed restrictions in May 2024, and starting in 2028 a ban on the import of uranium from Russia. In response, the Russian government introduced temporary restrictions on the export of enriched uranium to the U.S. in November.