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Explainer: Why Russia’s nuclear industry has escaped major sanctions
Russia

Explainer: Why Russia’s nuclear industry has escaped major sanctions

by Toby Woodall

Since the start of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia has repeatedly threatened the use of atomic weapons, yet its much-prized nuclear industry has faced little in the way of meaningful sanctions. Russia's state atomic corporation, Rosatom, is a key part of the country's military-industrial complex — and is increasingly expanding its reach beyond nuclear weapons. By far the world's largest exporter of reactors and enriched uranium, it is a major player in the global civil nuclear indust

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Lukashenko trades prisoners for sanctions relief — and keeps the upper hand

As dust settles from a historic deal that saw Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko free 123 political prisoners in exchange for a partial U.S. sanctions relief, the main question remains unanswered — what now? Trump’s newly appointed special envoy, John Coale, arrived in Minsk on Dec. 12 and secured the biggest prisoner release so far, with Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski and leading opposition figures Viktar Babaryka and Maria Kalesnikava walking free the following day. The inc

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The Kyiv Independent’s coverage of news on Russia. Spanning eleven time zones across Eastern Europe and Asia, Russia has an estimated population of 146 million people. Russia’s capital city is Moscow, which is home to almost one in 10 Russians. Russia’s official currency is the Russian Ruble.

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Since early December, the Russian ruble has continued to strengthen against global currencies: on Dec. 7, it reached a value of only 76 rubles for one U.S. dollar, a figure unseen since May 2023. It soon dropped to 79 rubles per U.S. dollar, an exchange rate close to one seen on the eve of Russia's full-scale war. Ruble's strength came despite increasing sanction pressure by the Trump administration, which began targeting Russian oil giants Lukoil and Rosneft in October. The measures, which f

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