Siemens signs new contract with Russian company that previously delivered its turbines to Crimea
A subsidiary of the German company Siemens confirmed a new joint venture with the Russian state corporation Rostec, who had previously deceived Siemens with the illegal supply of its gas turbines to the Crimea in violation of contract. This was reported on January 11 by the Russian state news agency TASS.
Inna Domoratskaya, the Press Secretary of the Russian company Siemens Healthcare, a division of Siemens Healthcare GmbH, told the agency that this subsidiary of Siemens is ready to provide its technologies and expertise to create centralized clinical diagnostic laboratories in Russia's regions. With this goal, the company signed an agreement in December 2017 on cooperation and partnership with the Russian holding company RosElectronics, which is a part of the state corporation Rostec.
Earlier, on January 11, the same agency reported about such an agreement, citing an unnamed source in the Russian Ministry of Health and representatives of Rostec, who did not specify the details of the deal at the time.
Siemens and its Russian subsidiary, Siemens Gas Turbine Technologies are unsuccessfully suing two Rostec subdivisions, Technopromexport OJSC and Technopromexport LLC, regarding four, German-manufactured gas turbines that were found in Russian-annexed Crimea.
Siemens notes that under the contract, they were designated for another thermal power plant in Russia and that the contract explicitly forbade transferring the turbines to the Crimea because the European Union sanctions apply to the peninsula.
The Russians claim that one of the two Technopromexport companies, with which the contract was signed, resold the turbines to the other. That allowed the turbines to be re-classified as "acquired on the secondary market" meaning they were no longer subject to restrictions within the framework of the initial contract.
On December 10, another court in Russia issued another denial to the German company. The Moscow Arbitration Court refused a claim made by the subsidiary of the Siemens concern against the Rostec Corporation about the invalidation of contracts for the supply of gas turbines that were subsequently transported to the Crimea.
Earlier, the same court rejected a lawsuit filed by the German parent corporation Siemens demanding the return of four gas turbines imported to the Crimea in violation of the agreements. And the month before, the same court for the dismissed for the third time the claim for the arrest of these turbines.
The delivery of four Siemens gas turbines for the TPPs under construction in Sevastopol and Simferopol became known in the beginning of July 2017. After that, the company stated that it had stopped supplying the equipment to the Russian state-controlled companies. Because of this incident, the European Union has expanded the sanctions against Russia.