The CEO of Russia’s state-owned nuclear energy corporation Rosatom told Russian state TV channel Rossiya 1 on March 4 that a nuclear power plant project signed between Naypyidaw and Moscow would be built near Myanmar’s capital city.

“We can handle logistics, because Rosatom is also a logistics company. We have never been afraid of long distances: we are building in Bolivia, we are building in Africa, we are building in the Far East at home, in Yakutia, Chukotka, therefore, in this sense, logistics does not frighten us at all,” said Alexey Likhachev.

His comment followed a meeting between regime leader Min Aung Hlaing and Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in Moscow earlier that day. President Putin stated that this would create further economic development between the two countries and create thousands of new jobs.

The proposed power plant would have a capacity of 100 megawatts with the possibility of trebling, or generating three times that capacity, according to Rosatom. Likhachev added that the nuclear power plant project was agreed to “decades before” under a previous military regime, whose nuclear ambitions began as early as 2000. 

Myanmar’s then Minister of Foreign Affairs Win Aung held talks with Russia’s Minister of Science and Technology Ilya Klebanov. The regime at the time requested that Moscow consider a cooperative effort in constructing and operating a 10-megawatt nuclear research reactor in Myanmar. 

In 2002, it was reported by regime media that the first brick was laid for the substructure of a future nuclear power plant on the outskirts of Magway Region. Russia was planning to supply equipment for the nuclear reactor the following year, in 2003.

On May 15, 2002, Russia issued a decree requiring its Ministry of Atomic Energy, Minatom, hold negotiations and reach an agreement with Myanmar regarding the 10-megawatt nuclear research reactor.

Rosatom representatives and regime officials visited Naypyidaw to observe the Paunglaung Dam near Zeeyine village, and Ngatesu village in the Thitaw village-tract of Zeyathiri Township, Naypyidaw, on Dec. 9, 2022. Zeyathiri is located 192 miles (309 km) south of Mandalay. 

Regime media reported the visit as an observation of rock patterns and geological structures related to “land and thermal energy projects.” 

Russia was among few nations in the world to declare its support for the 2021 military coup in Myanmar, even as Min Aung Hlaing’s newly-formed regime faced global condemnation for the use of lethal force against peaceful anti-coup street protests.