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Five Siemens employees have been charged in Germany with violating the ban on the supply of gas turbines to Crimea. This was the case back in 2017, when the company delivered equipment to the Russian-occupied Ukrainian peninsula despite the sanctions. In particular, it was about four gas turbines that still remain in Crimea.
According to "European Truth" with reference to n-tv, the Hamburg prosecutor's office, after more than six years of investigations, charged four Germans and one citizen of Switzerland and France with violating the ban on the supply of goods to the occupied Crimea. The five defendants are said to have shipped four gas turbines worth 111 million euros to St. Petersburg in late 2015 and early 2016 with the intention of using them to support power plants in Crimea to provide electricity to the occupied peninsula.
The Hamburg Land Court has yet to rule on these charges. In 2017, it became known that four Siemens turbines got to the occupied peninsula, which happened to bypass EU sanctions.
Despite Siemens' disputes about the legality of the shipment, the company later claimed that the shipment was illegal, but without its knowledge. As a result, the German concern filed a lawsuit with the Moscow Arbitration Court against its subsidiary and the management of the Technopromexport company. It should be noted that Western companies are prohibited from trading with Crimea, because most of the world states do not recognize the annexation of the peninsula by Russia in 2014.
