Vladimir Putin suggests reducing uranium exports

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Vladimir Putin has asked Russian officials to consider restrictions on exports of goods, including uranium, in retaliation against fresh Western sanctions against Moscow and its allies.

“Please take a look at some of the types of goods we supply to the world market. . . Maybe we should think about some restrictions – uranium, titanium, nickel,” the Russian president said in a televised meeting with senior government officials on Wednesday.

Any reduction in enriched uranium sales could hurt nuclear reactors in the West. Many of them have long-term contracts to supply from Russia, which accounts for about a third of the world’s uranium enrichment capacity and about 5 percent of uranium mining.

Putin stressed that the suggestion was a response to Western pressure. “We are facing restrictions on some imports, so maybe we should consider imposing some limitations ourselves,” he said.

“But we have to make sure we don’t hurt ourselves in the process,” he added.

His remarks follow an escalation of Western sanctions against Russia and its allies China and Iran. Earlier this week, US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell accused China of providing Russia with support for its “war machine”.

While initial sanctions after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine focused on energy products such as oil and coal, Western allies have this year increasingly targeted Moscow’s metal exports. The US has banned some imports of metals of Russian origin. The leading UK and US exchanges are no longer trading aluminum, copper or new nickel from Russia.

“We’re in this geopolitically segmented world, and commodities tend to be at the forefront of that,” said Colin Hamilton, metals analyst at BMO Capital Markets, an investment bank.

Potential cuts in uranium exports could be particularly painful, Hamilton added. “That’s what the uranium industry fears.”

While the US has already banned imports of enriched uranium from Russia, the ban excludes existing contracts with US utilities.

Meanwhile, Russia has cut gas supplies to the EU via the Nord Stream pipeline in 2022, threatening to “freeze” the West. The pipeline was later destroyed by an explosion.

Alexandra Prokopenko, a fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, described the comments as “a typical Putin threat”.

“It’s a message to the west: ‘Look, despite all your energy transitions, we’re one of the leaders in rare earth metals, which you need to move to green energy. We can stop these exports and your plans will fall apart.

As Western sanctions on Russian goods increase, more of these shipments are heading to China, including for commodities such as coking coal and aluminum.

Russian Agriculture Minister Dmitri Patrushev has previously claimed that Western sanctions on agricultural products have benefited Russia’s domestic agricultural industry.

In 2014, the Western response to the annexation of Crimea led Russia to ban imports of vegetables, fruit, meat and dairy products originating in the US and the EU.

Russia has learned to produce alternatives domestically or import them from other countries. However, the sanctions led to double-digit price increases.

“In the initial phase, unfortunately, there was an increase in domestic prices. But then it stimulated the development of agriculture in Russia,” Putin said. “A similar process is now taking place in industry.”