On April 3, 2018, construction began on the $20 billion Akkuyu nuclear power plant in southern Turkey. Rosatom, the Russian state-controlled nuclear power company, owns a 51 percent stake in the project. According to researchers, the power plant is a means of deepening Russia’s energy links with Turkey, which already imports more than half of its natural gas from Russia. According to the Atlantic Council, Russian-made nuclear power plants rely on imports of specialized parts and fuel from Russian state-owned companies, thereby making the host country entirely dependent on the Russian government for the plant’s continued functionality.