It is not a big surprise to Lithuania that the Kremlin is in a full control of all Gazprom’s decisions, the Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite said on 12 September, while on her state visit to Romania.
“It’s no big discovery for us that prices have always depended on Russia’s top leadership. It doesn’t matter at all whether Gazprom itself was said to be negotiating or it’s some other decision. I see nothing new here, only perhaps there’s more clarity now about whom we have to speak directly to,” President told LRT Television.
Once asked if she is planning to call the Russian President herself she said, “It’s difficult to look for the sun together with the Russian neighbour, because the sun is not being given out for free there.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has issued a decree requiring that Russia’s strategic companies and their subsidiaries obtain permission from a government authorized institution before carrying out certain actions.
Putin’s decree follows the launch of the European Commission’s probe into whether Gazprom might be abusing its dominant market position in Central and Eastern European gas markets, in breach of EU antitrust rules.
