MOSCOW, May 15 (RIA Novosti) – European partners of Russia’s gas giant Gazprom have convinced the Council of the EU not to place the company’s CEO Alexey Miller on the sanctions list, Russian newspaper Vedomosti said on Thursday.
Heads of major Russian and European oil and gas companies became familiar with the draft EU sanctions list and demanded politicians to change their decision regarding the Gazprom CEO arguing that sanctioning him would make the business with the Russian company difficult, the news outlet said referring to a source.
Among the companies that stood for Miller were German, French and Italian oil and gas corporations.
The Gazprom partners had to work hard to achieve delisting of the Gazprom head, a representative of one of the European oil and gas companies said.
“Even to be heard by those in power was uneasy, we had to place a lot of calls to obtain a reaction,” he said.
Meanwhile, a representative of Total S.A. told Vedomosti that he is unaware of the fact that the French company had made such an appeal to any European politician. Representatives of Shell, E.On, Enel and Gazprom refused to comment, while representatives of OMV, GdF, BP, as well as the EU did not answer the newspaper reporters' questions.
On Monday, the EU added two Crimean companies and 13 individuals to a sanctions list over the escalating situation in Ukraine.
Since March, the US and EU have imposed targeted sanctions against Russian officials, freezing their assets and banning them from obtaining visas, as well as against 17 Russian companies.
The leaders of the G7 group of nations have further threatened Russia with sanctions against key sectors of the country’s economy in the event of a further escalation in the Ukrainian crisis.
Moscow has repeatedly stated that the language of sanctions is “inappropriate and counterproductive” and warned its Western partners about the “boomerang effect” that sanctions would have.
