Rosatom is a mainstay of the Russian economy. The nuclear company builds nuclear power plants, operates icebreakers and supplies the military. Abroad, he sometimes acts like the Russian Foreign Ministry. But that's exactly where the problems are now piling up.
Dmitri Gorchakov is no longer looking for exciting insights into environmental issues and nuclear waste when he combs through Rosatom's annual report. That ended in 2022, when Russia attacked Ukraine. The Russian nuclear expert left the country and joined the Norwegian environmental protection organization Bellona.
Since then he has pursued a different goal. He collects information from the nuclear company's business figures in order to show Ukraine and the countries of the Western world how the state-owned nuclear company and the Russian nuclear industry function. He also wants to explain how Rosatom is helping Russian President Vladimir Putin wage his war against Ukraine.
Numerous signs of problems
Rosatom is a giant. The group was founded in 2007 and is still 100 percent in Russian hands. More than 400,000 employees in more than 350 individual companies cover the entire nuclear value chain: uranium mining, fuel production, construction of nuclear power plants at home and abroad - and disposal of radioactive waste. Rosatom operates the world's only fleet of nuclear-powered icebreakers.
However, Rosatom is no longer a purely nuclear company. The group buys new companies in Russia every year, says Dimitri Gorchakov in ntv's "Learned something again" podcast. It is now also one of the leading companies in areas such as 3D printing, materials and IT. “Many things were originally developed for the nuclear industry,” says the nuclear expert. "Rosatom now produces these things primarily for the defense industry and for military purposes."
Rosatom is a pillar of Russia's war economy. In many cities the group is the largest employer and therefore influential. Even in the Kremlin. Rosatom researches, develops and builds nuclear weapons for Putin. The company occupies the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and is thus actively participating in the invasion of Ukraine.
It's a winning recipe. According to Rosatom, in 2025 consolidated sales increased by almost eight percent to the equivalent of 43.3 billion US dollars.
But a problem looms on the horizon: in the annual report for 2025, the group had to admit that sales in foreign business fell for the first time - by 4.1 percent to around 17.2 billion US dollars.
The unofficial Foreign Ministry
"There were numerous signs that they were having more and more problems," says Gorchakov. "They can't hide this anymore. We don't know all the details about which business area is affected. But the biggest problem was foreign projects. Rosatom is having difficulties building nuclear power plants. We assume that this is the main reason."
Gorchakov describes the decline in sales as significant, because foreign business has always been a success story. Rosatom is active in 65 countries worldwide. All orders together are worth more than $206 billion. Sales have always grown over the past ten years - by more than 20 percent annually in the last five years alone.
Rosatom makes money abroad, among other things, by supplying and disposing of nuclear fuel. The group is also the internationally dominant construction company of new nuclear power plants: Rosatom is currently building 22 reactor blocks in eight countries, including China, Egypt, India, Turkey and Hungary. The company is so well-connected and influential - at times it has acted like the unofficial Russian Foreign Ministry abroad, says Gorchakov.
But now the problems are piling up. Rosatom boss Alexei Likhachev himself admits this. When presenting the annual report, he explained that he was particularly concerned about the new Paks 2 nuclear power plant in Hungary and the Akkuyu project in Turkey.
Paks 2 is the only nuclear power plant that Rosatom is building within the EU. The Hungarian government commissioned the company to build two new reactor blocks in 2014. Former Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was a big supporter of the project. Construction should begin in 2022. But Paks 2 has been suffering from political, approval and technical problems for years. According to the annual report on the state of the nuclear industry (WNISR), a support structure collapsed in a construction pit for one of the two new reactors in January 2025. After four years of delay, construction of Paks 2 finally officially started in February 2026.
“Sanctions meat grinder”
Western sanctions also weigh on the company, although Rosatom was never directly sanctioned despite its active participation in the war. CEO Likhatschow said in the summer that the projects in Hungary and Turkey were in a "sanctions meat grinder." According to him, investments worth $2 billion were frozen in Turkey. Rosatom's payment system was also disrupted. In addition, after the start of the war, Siemens "refused deliveries," as the head of Rosatom complained.
“It was about electrical devices and guidance and control equipment,” says Rosatom observer Gorchakov in the podcast. "This order has been canceled. Rosatom has decided to replace Siemens equipment with Chinese equipment to complete the project. But due to this delay, Rosatom may have lost the contract for a second nuclear power plant in Turkey."
The Turkish government is planning at least two more large nuclear power plants. One with four reactors is to be built near the Mediterranean city of Sinop. According to Dmitry Gorchakov, Rosatom was the favorite for construction. But before the war began, Akkuyu's first reactor was scheduled to go into operation in 2023. Completion has now been delayed by three years.
That is why the Turkish government is speaking openly to international competitors about the project in Sinop. During his visit to the United States in September 2025, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan signed a memorandum of understanding with the US government on strategic cooperation in the field of civil nuclear energy. Two months later there was a similar agreement with South Korea.
Turkey is not an isolated case. Even the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan is taking precautions, although Russian influence is great, as Gorchakov explains. "Russia and Putin see Kazakhstan as a second Belarus. A country where they can do almost anything they want. But even there, Rosatom has lost its status. Because of the geopolitical changes caused by the war in Ukraine, Kazakhstan has diversified its nuclear projects. At least two nuclear power plants are planned to be built, but only one of them will be Russian. The second project will be Chinese."
The biggest loser from this development is Vladimir Putin. Rosatom is a state-owned company; The foreign projects are important for the prestige of Russia as a nuclear nation. At the same time, the problems are putting a strain on Russian coffers: Rosatom is not financing new nuclear power plants on its own; Russian banks, among others, are helping. If Rosatom is doing badly, Russia is doing badly.
The dwindling trust in Rosatom's capabilities is also a very personal defeat for Putin, as the Russian president is often seen abroad as a kind of personal brand ambassador for the company. During state visits he promotes new projects, regardless of whether they are in Turkey, China, Kazakhstan or Uzbekistan. Always in tow: Rosatom boss Alexei Likhachev. Serious problems with implementation fall back on the Kremlin chief personally.
However, the problems do not mean that Rosatom faces a similar fate to Gazprom: falling into insignificance. For governments that don't care about the war in Ukraine, the company is still one of the best options to build a new nuclear power plant - just no longer smoothly, on the contrary.
Putin is not only throwing Russian soldiers into the war meat grinder, but also his nuclear company.
