Russia has signed an agreement with Hungary on the construction of two new generating blocks of the NPP in this country. The price of the agreement is not mentioned but Hungary is the next country where Russia commits to construction of a new NPP. Russia has a 20 billion dollar program with Turkey to build a NPP. Most probably, Azerbaijan will be the next country after Hungary, as a few months ago the officials of this country hailed the prospects of cooperation with Russia over nuclear energy after Putin’s visit to Azerbaijan. Currently, Moscow is focused on Hungary whose Prime Minister Viktor Orban is Putin’s partner and EU’s outcast. Putin is lending Orban a hand for his controversy with Brussels. Nuclear assistance to Azerbaijan after Hungary will be expected provided the assistance for Ramil Safarov’s extradition from Hungary to Azerbaijan. Budapest and Baku did this job with the help of the Russia-based tycoon, Putin’s classmate Ilham Rahimov. Hence, it will be symbolic if Russia builds a NPP in Azerbaijan after building one in Hungary. Meanwhile, the Armenian-Russian agreement to build a new NPP in Armenia is withering; Moscow only lends 270 million and awards 30 million to prolong the operation of the Armenian NPP. The project of the new NPP which was announced by Serzh Sargsyan in October 2008 has been successfully frozen to the joy of Turkey and Azerbaijan which are openly acting against the construction of the new NPP of Armenia. Apparently, this is Turkey’s condition to make a deal with Russia on the construction of an NPP worth billions of dollars. Instead, Russia does not help Armenia to build a new NPP. In the beginning, the United States and France were interested in building a new NPP in Armenia. The French president Nicolas Sarkozy made some statements in 2011 about seconding a working group to Armenia to study the possibility for the participation of France. However, France has apparently found out that since Russia’s hand is on the new Armenian NPP project, France has no chance to participate. Neither does anyone else because Russia does not intend to build a new NPP in Armenia. And Armenia does not have a government to have a new NPP.
