Page 65 - bne magazine July 2022_20220704

bne July 2022 Eastern Europe I 65
Gazprom head Alexey Miller is being accused by the Anti-Corruption Foundation of embezzling billions from Russia's public gas giant. / Image: bne IntelliNews
FBK accuses Putin and Miller of using Gazprom
as “bottomless purse” in latest scandal report
bne IntelliNews
Alexey Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (known as FBK in Russian) has teamed up with investigative outlet Proekt to compile another report claiming to uncover systematic corruption at the highest level of the Russian state.
The report focuses on Alexey Miller, the CEO of gas giant Gazprom, the world’s largest public energy supplier. It accuses Miller of “embezzling billions” from Gazprom to enrich himself as well as the “friends and relatives of Putin”.
“Gazprom is not about business and efficiency. Gazprom doesn’t aim to be profitable and to earn money, and it never has. Gazprom exists in order to dish out money and to enrich Putin’s friends and contractors,” the report says.
“For more than 15 years, a group of Russian intelligence officers has been carrying out secret business tasks: from the division of Yukos property to the acquisition of shares in the most promising assets of Gazprom. A
significant part of the luxurious property received by this group of “golden colonels” is in the use of the head of Gazprom, Alexey Miller,” it claims.
The report mentions some big names, including oligarchs Arakdy Rotenberg and Gennady Timchenko, who it accuses
Mikhail Putin, who sits on Gazprom’s management board.
“Roman Abramovich pulled off what was probably the most flagrantly corrupt deal in the entire history of the company. In 1995 he bought Sibneft in the “loans for shares” scheme for $100mn, then in 2005
“Gazprom is not about business and efficiency. Gazprom doesn’t aim to be profitable and to earn money, and it never has. Gazprom exists in order to dish out money and to enrich Putin’s friends and contractors”
of buying assets from Gazprom at knock- down prices and selling them back for huge profits.
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and former Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich also featured in the report, as did Putin’s relative
he sold it back to Gazprom for $13bn. This deal alone allowed him to become one of the richest men in the world and buy football clubs, castles and yachts,” the report says.
As well as accusing members of Putin’s inner circle of carving up public assets
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