German Government Says Issue of Siemens Turbines May Hurt Relations With Russia

German government believes that relations between Germany and Russia could deteriorate because of the crisis over Siemens turbines, allegedly delivered to Crimea despite EU sanctions, local media reported on Sunday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — In early July, Siemens created a task force team to investigate reports about the transfers of turbines produced by Siemens Gas Turbines Technologies, a joint venture with the Russian Power Machines company, to the Crimean peninsula. On Friday, the company said that all four of its turbines intended for the project in Taman were illegally delivered to Crimea. Siemens decided to annul a power plant equipment supply license agreement and suspend power equipment supplies to Russian state firms to devise new control measures.

"The federal government once again reminded the Russian authorities of their commitments and noted that such a large-scale violation of the sanctions regime will once again worsen the German-Russian relations," a representative of the German Foreign Ministry said, as quoted by the Bild am Sonntag newspaper.

Commenting on the issue, Russia's Technopromexport (TPE) said it purchased turbines for Crimean power plants in the secondary market, with Russian engineering companies modernizing them.