Uganda rewards a $4bn oil refinery deal to sanctions hit Russia’s Rostec
The CEO has been subject to US sanctions
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Tags: business, Oil & Gas
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Uganda has rewarded a $4bn oil refinery deal to a subsidiary of Russia’s Rostec, whose CEO has been subject to US sanctions.Uganda and RT Global Resources will now negotiate the terms of a joint venture to engineer and finance the $2.5bn refinery plus a product pipeline and associated infrastructure.
The decision to award the contract cements growing ties between Moscow, and the country, which increasingly characterises the west as a neo-colonial aggressor.The CEO, Sergei Chemezov, is a former KGB officer and close ally of President Vladimir Putin.
The US blocked his assets and prohibited companies from dealing with him since April 2014 in response to Russia’s military involvement in the conflict in eastern Ukraine.The EU followed suit in September.Although Uganda is under no legal compulsion to comply with the sanctions, the decision will further threaten its international standing.
Uganda’s global standing was knocked last year by the introduction of anti-gay legislation that drew global censure and led some western donors to halt aid until the law was overturned.President Yoweri Museveni has struck up a personal friendship with Putin in recent years.
A person close to him says they share an appreciation for strongman diplomacy directed against the west.”The decision to do business with a Russian military contractor whose chief executive is subject to sanctions “sounds typical Museveni,” said one senior western diplomat.”The west won’t dictate to us who we do business with, even if the chief executive is under US sanctions,” Ofwono Opondo, a Ugandan government spokesman.
“We have very cordial, diplomatic relations with Russia — they supply us military equipment, they train our officers. We are not going to allow anybody to choose for us our friends. If the west has problems with Putin that is their problem.”
