Some quotes from Italian financial analyst Federico Bordonaro posted on RFE/RL:
He notes that Gazprom “benefitted enormously” from the steep rise in oil and natural-gas prices in recent years, and then suffered a “huge blow” when prices fell in the middle of 2008.
Bordonaro adds that Gazprom’s investment strategy “wasn’t probably the best suited for them,” because instead of “investing in technology and innovation, maintenance, and instead of pursuing the policy of transference” during the boom years, “they did other things” such as buying other companies.
“They increased their size; and they proceeded to [do] a series of deals that were not always very transparent. They lost credibility, they threatened crisis, and they actually got involved in the Russo-Ukrainian crisis of the beginning of this year,” Bordonaro says.