The EU and Gazprom

In 2007, Alexei Miller, head of Russia’s state-gas behemoth Gazprom famously boasted he would raise the company’s market value to US$ 1 trillion; up from US$ 360 billion at the time. Today, much of that dream has vaporised. After years of hard-nosed tactics in Central and Eastern Europe and several high-profile gas supply interruptions, Gazprom’s reputation as a reliable supplier is in tatters.

The fallout over the Ukraine crisis brought severe pain to the Russian economy and prompted ...