Germany’s Siemens Says Russian Partner Violated Crimea Sanctions
The company, Siemens, a giant engineering and electronics conglomerate based in Munich, said a Russian customer had
illegally shipped two power plant turbines to Crimea instead of their intended destination in southern Russia.
Siemens said it built the turbines in Russia with a Russian partner and sold them to Technopromexport for a power generation project in Taman, a city on a peninsula in southern Russia
that is separated from Crimea by a narrow section of the Black Sea.
Technopromexport had repeatedly reassured Siemens that the turbines would not be sent to Crimea, Siemens said.
Technopromexport had agreed in writing not to ship the turbines to Crimea, or to export the power they generated to annexed territory, Siemens said.
By JACK EWING and ANDREW E. KRAMERJULY 10, 2017
FRANKFURT — One of Germany’s biggest companies said Monday
that it had become an unwitting pawn in a scheme to evade sanctions against Russia and break a de facto blockade of electricity to the annexed territory Crimea.
The diversion of the turbines flouted what Siemens said was an agreement not to violate sanctions
imposed by the international community after Russia annexed the territory from Ukraine in 2014.