Kremlin Reserves Comment on Possible EU Sanctions Expansion Over Siemens Issue

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — It is difficult for the Kremlin to comment on the European Union's Siemens conglomerate-related new sanctions because Brussels has not yet reached a decision, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday.

On Wednesday, a source told Sputnik that Council of the European Union's Committee of Permanent Representatives (Coreper) agreed to expand the list of anti-Russian individual sanctions on the initiative of Berlin. The source noted that the technical work on the relevant acts would follow.

"No decision have yet been taken, so it is still difficult to talk about a certain attitude to this," Peskov told reporters.

In early July, Siemens created a task force team to investigate reports about the alleged transfer 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 a 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, while Berlin promised a corresponding response to the violation of the agreements.

On July 11, Russian Industry and Trade Minister Denis Manturov said that the new power plants in Crimea would be equipped with turbines manufactured in Russia and not with ones imported from the West. Commenting on the situation, Peskov said earlier that all products used in Crimea made in Russia.

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.