Bangladesh: Bangladesh is facing the brunt of sanctions on Russia on many fronts

A big problem has arisen in front of Bangladesh to pay Russia. He has to pay for this instead of the nuclear plant being built in the country with the help of Russia. A problem with this is that Russia has been excluded from most international banking payment systems due to Western sanctions imposed after the Ukraine war. Another problem is the ever-decreasing dollar amount in Bangladesh's foreign exchange reserves.

The nuclear plant being built at Rooppur, about 140 km west of Dhaka, is said to be the biggest infrastructure project in the country. When this plant starts functioning, it will generate 2,400 MW of electricity. With this, the electricity requirement of 1.5 crore houses can be met. $12.65 billion is being spent on this project. Russia has given 90 percent of this as a loan. Bangladesh has failed to pay three installments to return it after the Ukraine war started in February last year. In this way, he has not been able to return the amount of $ 110 million to Russia.

According to Alok Chakraborty, Chief Administrative Officer of the Rooppur Project, the problem is due to western sanctions. On the other hand, Russia wants quick payment from Bangladesh. Russia's nuclear agency Rosatom has sent several letters to the Bangladesh government, urging it to find a solution to the payment issue.

Mejbul Haque, the spokesperson of the Central Bank of Bangladesh – Bangladesh Bank, in a conversation with the website NikkeiAsia.com, denied that the payment to Russia was due to the decline in Bangladesh's foreign exchange reserves. He said that Bangladesh has not been able to pay the amount of $110 million on time, which is "not a huge amount". This amount was to be repaid against a loan taken in 2013.

According to experts, more and more problems have arisen in front of Bangladesh because Russia is not able to pay the loan installments related to the agreement for another loan of $ 4.97 billion in 2016. Repayment of this loan is to start in 2027, so its immediate burden is not on Bangladesh. While the pace of work on the project has slowed down due to the non-receipt of loan installments from Russia.

According to the schedule, the production of electricity from the Rooppur plant is to start in 2024. But looking at the slow pace now, it is feared that it may not happen now. According to experts, due to the sanctions imposed on Russia after the start of the Ukraine war, Bangladesh has also faced many other problems.

Last December, Bangladesh had to return a large Russian cargo ship due to US sanctions. It is said that this ship also had some spare parts for the nuclear plant. Meanwhile, Science and Technology Minister of Bangladesh Yifesh Usman has said that soon a high-level delegation from Bangladesh will go to Russia so that the problems being faced can be resolved.

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