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I guess Putin is serious this time, this article was published earlier today

JERUSALEM, April 13 (Reuters) - Russia's Gazprom (GAZP.MM: Quote, Profile, Research) may join the exploration race for a new natural gas windfall off the coast of Israel, Israeli media reported on Tuesday. Financial daily Globes on its Web site reported Gazprom, together with Israel's Modiin Energy (MDINp.TA: Quote, Profile, Research), the IDB Group (IDBH.TA: Quote, Profile, Research) and Israel Land Development (ILDC.TA: Quote, Profile, Research), was considering vying for a new tender for exploratory offshore drilling. Officials at both Israel's Infrastructure Ministry and Modiin Energy declined to comment on the report. Gazprom was not available for immediate reaction. U.S. group...

BERLIN: Gazprom, the Russian export monopoly that delivers a quarter of the European Union's natural gas, warned the bloc Tuesday that it was endangering its own security of supply with plans to break up the Continent's energy giants. At an annual EU-Russian energy conference, Gazprom's director for international relations, Stanislav Tsygankov, said proposals being drafted by the European Commission to force the separation of energy production, transmission and distribution would sow "instability and unpredictability" across the sector. "Which companies will be able to plan long term investments under those...

On February 28 Hungary’s Socialist Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany joined Russia’s outgoing and incoming presidents, Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev, in Moscow to seal an intergovernmental agreement on Gazprom’s further expansion into European Union territory via Hungary. Hungary’s privately owned energy company MOL is staying out of this intergovernmental, politically-colored deal. MOL is a partner in the U.S.-backed Nabucco project of the EU. The Hungarian government’s accession to South Stream, however, adds to the recent series of defections from the Nabucco project (see EDM, January 24, 28, 29, February 5, 28). The agreement just signed envisages building an extension of...

The "Yukos Affair", its Motives and Implications Key points 1. When interpreting the "Yukos affair", it is hard to focus on any single particular motive or explanation that would easily rationalise the government's actions against the company. The "Yukos affair" is a multi-layered process with a number of different reasons for its cause. When one scrutinises the events around the company, the impression may be obtained that the Kremlin seemed at first not to have had any ultimate strategy; the authorities' position evolved as time went by. At first, the conflict was mainly of a political nature; economic factors did...

MOSCOW -- Tarred as a tool in the Kremlin's drive for international influence, OAO Gazprom has politicians in Europe and the U.S. seeing red. But for many foreign investors, the Russian natural-gas giant brings to mind an altogether different color: green. Gazprom stock is up about 70% this year after the Kremlin in January lifted restrictions that had prevented many foreigners from buying the 49% of the company that isn't government-owned. Gazprom's market value has overtaken Royal Dutch Shell PLC and BP PLC and, at $289 billion, is second only to Exxon Mobil Corp.'s among international energy companies. (It is...

"We asked. She refused." This was what Polish Defense Minister Radek Sikorski said plaintively over the weekend at a conference of European and North American leaders in Brussels. Sikorski was voicing Warsaw's complaint that German Chancellor Angela Merkel ignored Polish pleas to scrap the US$10.5 billion trans-Baltic North European Pipeline project with Russia, which was negotiated by her predecessor Gerhard Schroeder - a project that would cement Berlin's energy ties to Moscow but bypass Poland and the Baltic states. Planned in the early 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the gas-pipeline project was intended to reduce Russia's dependence...

After days of delays and weeks of negotiations, Naftogaz Ukrainy and RosUkrEnergo finally created the joint venture that will deliver natural gas to Ukraine The move ends almost one month of talks and comes after RosUkrEnergo has finally bowed to the pressure from Naftogaz and agreed to keep gas prices unchanged at $95/1,000 cubic meters during five years, till 2010. Russia's energy giant Gazprom confirmed Thursday it had formed a joint gas distribution venture, UkrGazEnergo, on a parity basis with Ukraine's national energy company Naftogaz. "In line with an agreement on market principles of cooperation in the gas sphere concluded...

Refering to the gas conflict between Ukraine und Russia the German minister of economy, Michael Glos suggested consequences for Russia. At the same time he promoted a reversal in Germanys energy policy: Coal and atomic energy would be alternatives. Glos underlined that Germany only will increase its imports of gas from Russia, if the steady delivery is trustworthy. Russia has the chairmanship of the G8. Therefore he expects responsible attitudes. During his visit in Moscow last December he already told President Putin: "Russian Gas has a good reputation in Germany, especially a reputation of reliability and steadiness." Snip.... Snip... Glos...