Russia Hopes to Build Large Gas Turbines at Home in 5 Years

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russian state machine builders are expected to come up with a blueprint of the first homemade large gas turbine in the coming years, the industry and trade minister told Sputnik.

"We have drafts by Power Machines, by Rostec’s ODK. We expect the first prototypes to be built in three to five years," Denis Manturov said in an interview.

Russia has to rely on imports of gas turbines with a power generation capacity of 100 megawatts and more for its thermal power stations.

READ MORE: Russian Court Rejects Siemens' Appeal to Seize 'Crimean Turbines'

The need to shift away from imports was thrust into the spotlight after the European Union banned a range of equipment deliveries to Russia’s Crimea in 2014. This impeded sales to the peninsula by German engineering group Siemens.