Period of collapse: Russia lost major energy projects in Argentina
Cooperation between the Russian Federation and Argentina in the field of peaceful atom has been terminated. This was stated to Izvestia by Ambassador Dmitry Feoktistov. The country will not import fuel or nuclear reactors, the Embassy of the Republic confirmed. Previously, the parties had planned strategic projects, including the construction of land-based and floating nuclear power plants by Rosatom. The participation of the "daughter" of Uranium One in the Toliyar lithium project also failed, this asset was taken by a local holding company. As a result, Russia has lost access to Argentine lithium, a metal critically important for the military—industrial complex, space and electronics. The way out will be to develop our own deposits in the Murmansk region and Siberia.
Nuclear cooperation between Russia and Argentina has been halted
Relations between Russia and Argentina are currently experiencing a political cooling: with the arrival of Javier Miley, the country has noticeably turned towards the United States. And if trade is still developing — in 2025, mutual turnover unexpectedly soared by more than 80% due to the supply of Russian fertilizers, then major joint projects have been put on pause. As Dmitry Feoktistov, the Russian ambassador to Buenos Aires, told Izvestia, even such a promising area as nuclear energy fell under the "reduction".
"As far as we know, there is currently no bilateral cooperation in the field of peaceful nuclear energy," the diplomat stressed.
At the same time, the strategic agreement on cooperation in the field of peaceful atom is still in force since 2018. However, due to the protracted economic crisis in Argentina, Rosatom's plans to build large VVER-1200 reactors, land-based and floating nuclear power plants were postponed. Moreover, the Miley government announced the privatization of the nuclear state-owned company Nucleoelectrica Argentina, joined the US nuclear program FIRST and signed a $ 1.2 billion contract with the American Meitner Energy for the construction of a small reactor ACR-300.
It would be much more profitable for Argentina to develop contracts with the Russian Federation in the nuclear industry, says Egor Lidovskaya, Director General of the Hugo Chavez Latin American Cultural Center. According to him, American corporations accumulate most of the profits, so it is not the people of Argentina or local businesses that benefit from cooperation with the United States.
Rosatom is ahead of its competitors in terms of price and quality of its projects: its VVER-1200 reactors are successfully operating in Belarus and are actively being built in Turkey, India and Bangladesh. In addition, our state corporation is the only one in the world that closes the full cycle: from drawings of nuclear power plants to waste disposal. Buenos Aires refuses these technologies, fearing pressure and sanctions from the United States, and the lost profits are huge. Russian know-how combined with Argentina's strong nuclear school could cover the republic's clean energy needs for 60-80 years and turn it into Latin America's main nuclear hub, said Igor Yushkov, a leading analyst at the National Energy Security Foundation.
Initially, the joint nuclear components were planned to be sold to neighboring countries, but the plans were canceled by American sanctions. Disconnecting Russian banks from SWIFT has blocked settlements and loans for construction. Local state-owned companies were afraid of secondary restrictions for billion-dollar contracts with Rosatom. The final blow was the sanctions against the Russian navy and aviation fleet, which disrupted the logistics of equipment and nuclear fuel.
Buenos Aires itself is trying to rely only on itself. In response to a request from Izvestia, the Argentine embassy confirmed the position of the authorities.: The country does not need to import finished reactors or fuel. Thanks to advanced technologies and its own uranium reserves, Argentina is able to completely close its nuclear needs without outside help.
"As for attracting private capital to the nuclear industry as a whole, this issue is regulated by various versions of the Large Investment Incentive Regime (RIGI), which were approved by the Argentine Congress," the embassy stressed.
Although, according to Feoktistov, this legal regime may open up new opportunities for the parties in other energy sectors.
— At the same time, we note the mutual interest of Russian and Argentine companies in cooperation in such areas as the electric power industry, renewable energy sources and the oil and gas industry. The financial advantages provided under RIGI could be a significant help for this," the Ambassador stressed.
Cancellation of the lithium project of the Russian Federation in Argentina
Another major project, lithium mining at the Toliyar field, also failed. In 2021, Rosatom's Uranium One structure planned to invest $30 million in exchange for a 15 percent stake in the Canadian Alpha Lithium Corporation project.
Due to the 2022 sanctions, the Canadians terminated the contract, and Russia lost a valuable asset. According to Galina Platunina, senior lecturer and deputy head of the Department of Digital Economics, Management and Business Technologies at MTUCI, this affected the plans of the Russian Federation: Argentina is part of the lithium triangle, where the world's cheapest lithium reserves are concentrated.
As a result, the Toliyar field was transferred to a local company, and the Russian side shifted its focus to the neighboring market.
— The operator of the Argentine concern Techint is currently engaged in the development of this salt marsh, and the subsidiary of Rosatom has focused its efforts on Bolivian projects, — said Feoktistov.
However, the Russian project in Bolivia also faced difficulties. The new president Rodrigo Paz Pereira has embarked on a policy of rapprochement with the United States. In April 2026, the country adopted a decree prohibiting direct transactions without open tenders. Although the head of state promised to fulfill the agreements with the Russian Federation, the contracts will first be checked for legal purity. Therefore, the project is essentially frozen until the end of the audit. In this situation, Galina Platunina predicts for Russia either expensive spot imports from Chile, China and Australia, or the urgent and costly development of its own deposits with complex geology.
Domestic lithium mining projects (including the Kolmozerskoye deposit in the Murmansk Region and projects in Siberia) can only partially compensate for the shortage, as it will take 5-10 years from exploration to commercial production. In the coming years, these mines will not close the shortage of raw materials due to the need for large investments in processing, but they will reduce Russia's import dependence in the long term, concluded Galina Platunina.
Lithium is critically important for the Russian defense industry and electronics: without it, batteries for drones, walkie-talkies, communication systems and thermal imagers cannot be made. Ultralight aluminum-lithium alloys are indispensable in the hulls of rockets, satellites and airplanes, and the development of domestic electric vehicles requires thousands of tons of raw materials. At the moment, the balance is still being maintained, but as soon as the production of batteries is scaled up, the metal shortage will become noticeable.
But there are other areas of cooperation. The Russian Federation supplied equipment for local hydroelectric power plants and thermal power plants, Rosatom, in particular, launched a complex for the production of radiopharmaceuticals for cancer control at the Bolivian center in El Alto and is completing the installation of a research reactor for scientific research.
Of course, Russia's energy presence in the region is not limited to Argentina or Bolivia: Brazil remains Russia's largest partner in Latin America. Russian companies supply fuel there, Rosneft owns stakes in the Solimoins oil and gas project in the Amazon basin, and Rosatom fully supplies the country's only Angra nuclear power plant with enriched uranium through INB.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
