RA in the Financial Post: Gazprom as an Arm of the Kremlin
Robert Amsterdam’s speech in Calgary today was covered by the Financial Post:
Gazprom just an arm of the Kremlin, Khodorkovsky’s lawyer warns Canadians People should understand that OAO Gazprom, the Russian gas giant that wants to become a major supplier to North America, is not a company but an arm of the Kremlin, says Robert Amsterdam, the Canadian lawyer who counseled Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former CEO of Yukos who was convicted of charges of tax evasion and is serving an eight-year jail sentence in Siberia. “[Russian president Vladimir] Putin says it,” Mr. Amsterdam said in an interview before speaking to the Economic Club of Calgary on Tuesday about Russia’s resource nationalism. “We need to believe Mr. Putin when he says he thinks it’s fine for energy to be used as a weapon. And we need to clarify what that means in terms of Canada and the U.S. They are a great monopolist.”