The extreme sanctions imposed on Russia have hit industrial sectors the hardest, which have been almost entirely dependent on imports of high quality foreign made machinery for almost all of the last three decades since the fall of the Soviet Union.

The problem is that because of the timing of the collapse of the USSR, Russia missed out on two revolutions in precision tool making and is now hopelessly behind. One of the biggest lacunas has been highly efficient gas turbines that were almost all supplied by Siemens as Russia can’t make them for itself.

After decades of its own sanctions, Iran’s technology is surprisingly advanced, and it has already solved many of the problems Russia is now grappling with.

The Iranian firm MAPNA has just delivered its first advanced MGT-70 gas turbine to Russia, part of a deal to export 40 gas turbines to Russia in 2022.

The delivery includes the turbine, generators, electrical equipment and aircraft engine repair services. Iran’s gas turbines will replace Russia’s German Siemens gas turbines. Several weeks ago, Iran mastered the domestic production of an even more advanced MGT-75 class-F gas turbine. Iran has also shared world class drone technology with Russia, from which Russia has established several factories and used the designs to innovate even more advanced Gerand models that have become increasingly effective on the battlefield.

The import of the Iranian turbines comes on top of Russia’s own efforts to improve its own technology, where it has also made good progress.

As bne IntelliNews reported, sanctions have spurred innovation from Russian cheese to turbines. Earlier this year, specialists from the United Engine Corporation (UEC), part of the Rostec State Corporation, completed testing of the second prototype of the new AL-41ST-25 industrial gas turbine engine. The engine was manufactured at UEC-UMPO in Ufa, Republic of Bashkortostan, which is almost as good as anything Siemens makes, the experts say.

The AL-41ST-25 is a fully domestically produced industrial turbine designed to replace foreign equivalents in Russia's fuel and energy sector. It has a capacity of 25 MW and features enhanced efficiency, reliability and environmental sustainability.

The prototype consistently met its specified performance parameters in all operating modes, according to Rostec, matching the performance of the German-made equivalents. However, clearly the roll out of large scale production of these Russian-made turbines is going too slowly.