"Russian Workers at Turkish Nuclear Plant Report Months of Unpaid Wages" 14 July 2025

Russian workers building Turkey’s first nuclear power plant say they have not been paid for two months...Since the payment delays began in May, the workforce at the Akkuyu plant, one of Moscow’s most high-profile overseas energy projects, has shrunk from 12,000 to just 3,000...Located in Turkey’s southern Mersin province, the Akkuyu plant is a $20 billion project managed by Russia’s state nuclear energy corporation Rosatom...

...Russian nationals are recruited for the project through agencies at home but sign contracts in Turkey...In March, Turkish workers staged a strike over stagnant wages that had not kept up with inflation. Russian workers remained silent, reportedly under threat of dismissal and the loss of return flights to Russia that are covered under their employment contracts...

...According to Bloomberg, the Russian government proposed that state energy giant Gazprom deduct funds for Akkuyu from Turkey’s monthly payments for Russian natural gas imports...Anton Dedusenko, chairman of Rosatom subsidiary Akkuyu Nuclear, said on July 8 that commissioning work had begun on the plant’s first reactor unit...
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...Roughly $9 billion from Russia’s Central Bank was funneled through Gazprombank as a loan to fund construction...The money was then routed via U.S. banks into Russian corporate accounts held at Ziraat Bank, Turkey’s largest state-owned lender...

[See responses from the banks in initial reporting by The Wall Street Journal here]