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WikiLeaks dubs Russia's Gazprom 'vulture'

© Sputnik / Ruslan Krivobok / Go to the mediabankWikiLeaks dubs Russia's Gazprom 'vulture'
WikiLeaks dubs Russia's Gazprom 'vulture' - Sputnik International
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Russian gas giant Gazprom behaves "like a vulture" in its attempts to gain new assets, notorious WikiLeaks cables from the new tranche of the leaked documents said.

Russian gas giant Gazprom behaves "like a vulture" in its attempts to gain new assets, WikiLeaks cables from the new tranche of the leaked documents said.

Among the newly released WikiLeaks materials is a cable citing a message from U.S. Ambassador to Kazakhstan Richard Hoagland, who in a private conversation with the then first vice-president of the Kazakh state-owned oil and gas producer KazMunaiGaz, Maksat Idenov, said that Gazprom and China National Petroleum Company "continue to circle like vultures," referring to their bids for the world's biggest oil field in Kazakhstan, Kashagan.

The Kashagan Field, one of the largest recent discoveries of oil in the world, has at least a 7-billion-barrel oil capacity. It is currently operated by Italy's Eni SpA. Kazakhstan holds 16.81% in the project as well as the Italian Eni, France's Total, the U.S. Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell. Japan's Inpex has 7.56%, while ConocoPhillips has 8.4%.

WikiLeaks also mentioned Russia's relations with the Customs Union member states. The whistle-blower website claimed that Moscow insisted Astana and Minsk should buy Airbus jets (since the state-owned Russian investment bank Vnesheconombank (VEB) owns 5% of Airbus' producer) instead of Boeing aircraft.

"There is so much fuss about these leaks only because the documents were tagged secret. However, if the ordinary user surfs Internet publications, he will find similar facts from public sources and media," the deputy head of the Center for Political Technologies, Alexei Makarkin, said.

Makarkin said he had not learned "anything new about Russia from WikiLeaks revelations."

MOSCOW, December 2 (RIA Novosti)

 

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