The Finger on Gazprom’s Trigger

An excellent quote pulled from Roger Boyes op/ed in the Times of London:

“Gazprom itself is neither good nor bad,” say the Russian authors Valery Panyushkin and Mikhail Sygar, “it is like a Kalashnikov or a Colt that can be used either to intimidate or in defence. Its moral value depends on the intention of the person whose finger is on the trigger.”

In other words, let’s stop talking about Gazprom as a straightforward market player: it is a political weapon.

The article argues that given its preferential relationship with Russia, it is Germany’s duty to lobby on behalf of the EU to demand more transparency and less politics from Gazprom.