Rosatom is building 28 nuclear power units in nine countries and has signed agreements for 17 more, its chief executive told President Vladimir Putin.

"We are building 28 large, medium and small power units abroad," Alexey Likhachev said. "Projects are progressing steadily in India, China, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, Bangladesh and Hungary." He also singled out Uzbekistan, where construction formally began in June, and Belarus completes the list of nine.

Beyond those under construction, the state corporation holds agreements covering another 17 units in Vietnam, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Myanmar, Kyrgyzstan and Ethiopia, and is negotiating with 15 further states over roughly 50 potential projects, Interfax reported on August 20.

Four years of sanctions have taken Russian gas out of Europe, frozen its central bank reserves and pushed its oil into a discounted shadow fleet. Nuclear has been left almost untouched, and it is the one export where Russia still writes 60-year contracts with Nato members - Hungary and Turkey are both on the construction list. That nuclear exports are booming is not new; what makes them durable is what makes them valuable. A reactor is a 60-year fuel contract with a supplier the buyer cannot change.

Fuel, servicing, waste handling and often the financing all come with the plant, which is why uranium has become the new gas in Russia's dealings with emerging markets. The geography of the 17-unit agreement list - Vietnam, Myanmar, Kyrgyzstan, Ethiopia - shows where the next set of those relationships is being built.

The domestic programme is expanding in parallel. Russia plans to add around 30 GW of nuclear capacity, extending atomic generation into the Urals, Siberia and the Far East, Izvestia reported.

The order book is not evidence of delivery. Rosatom's flagship projects have a record of slipping - Akkuyu in Turkey and El Dabaa in Egypt have both run behind schedule, and leaked papers this month accused the corporation of negligence in Egypt while it builds Hungary's reactors. Signing 50 more agreements is easier than pouring concrete on the 28 already under way.