Senior Russian nuclear official arrested on charges of financing Ukrainian military

Russian authorities have arrested a senior Rosatom executive on charges of financing the Ukrainian military. On Friday, federal agents detained Mikhail Shcherbak, the director of capital construction at Atomstroyexport, which manages Rosatom’s nuclear engineering division. Shcherbak has worked in the Russian nuclear construction sector for nearly two decades, participating in projects in Belarus and Iran, according to the independent outlet Agentstvo.

Rosatom has confirmed Shcherbak’s arrest, telling Russian state media that it is cooperating with federal investigators.

Atomstroyexport, the management company for Rosatom’s engineering division, oversees the construction of nuclear power plants in Russia and, primarily, abroad. According to the division’s website, 80 percent of its revenue comes from foreign projects. Agentstvo reports that Rosatom is currently at various stages of construction on at least 10 nuclear power plants, including the Kudankulam plant in India and the Akkuyu plant in Turkey. In July 2025, workers for a subcontractor developing the Turkish plant protested against unpaid wages. Rosatom blamed the backlog on the “actions of unfriendly countries” competing with Russian energy projects.

Atomstroyexport is also building the Bushehr nuclear plant in Iran. Construction originally commenced in the 1970s with German involvement, but the work was suspended due to the Islamic Revolution. Atomstroyexport took over construction of the first reactor unit in 1998, and in November 2014, Russia and Iran signed a contract for two additional units. Although some employees were evacuated from the site during the Israeli military operation in June 2025, construction continued.

Over the past two decades, Shcherbak’s work has expanded from domestic nuclear sites to include significant international ventures. Leaked border control records reviewed by Agentstvo indicate that he traveled to Iran in 2014 to facilitate the expansion of the Bushehr plant, and by 2015, he was managing financing for the Astravets Nuclear Power Plant in Belarus. Since late 2021, Shcherbak has made repeated visits to Abkhazia to oversee the construction of a medical center and the establishment of specialized science classrooms in local schools.

Cover photo: Bangladesh’s Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant, under construction by Rosatom, 2023 / Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant