"Equipment has been delivered to the facility, and the construction has advanced a lot, but now everything has been suspended because of the pandemic; the project is frozen because works are underway only in vitally essential industries," Sprinchan said.
According to the ambassador, ABEN now has a new director, who has a "very positive" attitude toward the project.
"The new management of the industry discredited all previous statements about any violations or disinterest in working with Russia," the diplomat added.
A contract on the construction of a nuclear research centre was signed between Rosatom's subsidiary and ABEN back in 2017. Following a change of power in Bolivia in October, Rosatom Director General Alexey Likhachev told Sputnik that the company hopes that the event will not impact the project’s implementation.
A month later, however, the Bolivian government and Rosatom announced that the nuclear research centre in El Alto, which is scheduled to open in 2023, will be completed as planned and open access to peaceful nuclear energy technologies for the country.
