There is a riveting business story posted at Asia Times Online by Roman Kupchinsky, taking a look at the removal of the allegedly shady RosUkrEnergo trading company – famous for its non-transparent middleman role selling gas between Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Europe – only to be replaced by a new non-transparent middleman trading company, RosGas, also based in Zug, Switzerland.  Dmytro Firtash appears to have his name all over it.  If you have the patience for the details, this is quite a story.

Gazprom spokesman Sergey Kuprianov sharply contradicted the allegation that the company was linked to Rosgas: “It is well known that the only export channel for Russian gas is the company Gazprom Export. The company RosGas which was named today in the Hungarian media has no relation to Gazprom and is not part of the Gazprom Group.”

According to company records located by Jamestown, RosGas AG was first registered in Zurich, under the name IKRON AG on December 10, 2008, and changed its name eight days later to RosGas AG while relocating to Zug – only a few weeks before the Ukrainian-Russian gas conflict began in January 2009. The two principle shareholders of RosGas are Andras Laki, and Tamas Grazda, a Hungarian national who also happens to be the acquisitions and mergers director for Emfesz and a member of the management board of Emfesz, Poland.