Free Republic

Russia's under-pressure economy and Vladimir Putin have been dealt a devastating blow after state-controlled gas giant Gazprom recorded a huge net loss of $12.89B (£9.9bn) in 2024. The company's financial woes were compounded by plummeting share prices in its subsidiary Gazpro Neft and an increased income tax rate of 25%. This greatly raised tax liabilities for the company, leading to billions of pounds lost and follows a historic 2023 where Gazprom revealed a net loss for the first time in 25 years, recording a historic deficit of 629 billion rubles ($7.6 billion). The huge financial blow has had a knock...

Vladimir Putin has waged an energy war on Europe. The general running his campaign is ultra-loyalist and Gazprom PJSC boss Alexei Miller. ... Handicapping Gazprom is Mr. Miller’s decision over the past decade not to enter the market for liquefied-natural gas—a choice that left Gazprom, unlike Russian rival Novatek JSC, near totally reliant on pipelines to export fuel. Gazprom has limited options in the short term to redirect its gas to China and other buyers given its traditionally westward-facing infrastructure. One pipeline to China opened in 2019, but it can’t handle much gas. A second is under negotiation but won’t...