Gazprom, a “State within a State” at the heart of the regime installed by the President of Russia upon his coming to power

From our correspondent in Moscow

Lenin summed up Communism to one addition,

"Soviets plus electricity

.

"

Updated, the formula - lapidary and therefore necessarily caricature - would today be

: "Power in Russia is Putin plus gas."

Gas, or more exactly Gazprom, a sprawling group employing more than 400,000 people and which, beyond its "core business" extends its multifaceted activities from industry to sport, from oil to banking and the media.

A real "state within the state", of which Vladimir Poutine, as soon as he was appointed prime minister by Boris Yeltsin in August 1999, undertook to make the keystone of his power.

This economic giant - the second Russian group behind the oil company Rosneft - remains until today a base for the internal and external policy of the Kremlin - vis-à-vis China, for example.

Read also:

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In the beginning was gas.

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It is also vital for the

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