Analysis: Putin to head Gazprom?

WASHINGTON (UPI) — As the world’s attention increasingly focuses on Russia’s March 2 presidential election, speculation is rising about what President Vladimir Putin will do in the aftermath.

While it’s a foregone conclusion in Russia that First Vice Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev will most likely replace Putin, various theories have been floated, several of which seem to have Putin’s support — that he would take the post of prime minister under a Medvedev presidency, or continue discreetly to exercise power behind the scenes. Now the newspaper Pravda has put forth an intriguing scenario — that Putin would replace Medvedev as chairman of the board of directors of Russia’s natural gas giant Gazprom.


The idea has a certain elegant simplicity. Gazprom, founded in 1989, is now Russia’s largest company and the world’s biggest natural gas provider, with 432,000 employees. Gazprom ranked sixth on the 2007 Financial Times global 500 list, with a market value of $245 billion.

Its majority shareholder is the Russian government, with 50.01 percent of its stock. According to Gazprom’s Web site, in 2006 the company earned $66 billion, with a 31.72 percent operating profit from sales. Since June 2007, Gazprom shares increased 12 percent, leading Russian analysts with few exceptions to identify Gazprom as their top stock pick for 2008. Ever the capitalists, Russian analysts expect higher profits as the company recently won government approval to increase domestic tariffs for industrial users.

UPI