Siemens Stops Turbine Sales to Russia in Sanctions Dispute<br />By JACK EWINGJULY 21, 2017<br />FRANKFURT — A dispute between Berlin and Moscow escalated on Friday after Siemens, the German industrial giant, said it would stop delivering<br />power plant equipment to Russia after gas turbines were moved to the disputed territory of Crimea against the company’s wishes.<br />Siemens said it would impose a moratorium on deliveries of power plant equipment to state-controlled firms in Russia "for the time being." A<br />company spokesman said he could not provide information on how many existing orders would be affected, or how many sales it stood to lose.<br />The company’s decision to stop deliveries of gas turbines, at least temporarily, comes less than two weeks after it complained<br />that a Russian customer had shipped electrical generation machinery to Crimea instead of its intended destination in southern Russia.<br />The Kremlin’s spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, had said<br />that the turbines moved to Crimea were made in Russia from Russian parts, and so were not subject to sanctions restrictions.<br />On Friday, the German company said four gas turbines sold to Technopromexport had been illegally moved to Crimea, twice as many as previously known.<br />Steffen Seibert, spokesman for the German government, said on Friday<br />that the transfer of the turbines was "completely unacceptable." The government is considering what action to take in reply, Mr. Seibert told reporters in Berlin.
