Today, my dear friends, I’m going to tell you about one of the more cheerful little money-siphoning schemes adopted by OAO Gazprom—our “national treasure.” This scheme is absolutely real. Its reality is confirmed by a criminal fraud case. In that case, I have officially been recognized as a victim (as a Gazprom shareholder) and as a civil claimant. Being recognized as a victim is our small success. We’ve been working on this case for a long time, but hadn’t publicized it yet. But since Vedomosti wrote about it today, I’ll tell the story. So. There is Gazprom. Inside Gazprom, there is Mezhregiongaz. This is the Gazprom division that “controls” the entire domestic gas market. If you need gas for your plant/factory/combined heat and power station, you go to MRGZ and buy it there. You can’t buy it from anyone else. Because the pipeline belongs to Gazprom. And without the pipeline, gas is useless. Without a pipeline, all you can do with gas is create a beautiful flaming torch over endless snowy fields. But Gazprom isn’t the only producer of gas! you’ll say—and you’ll be absolutely right. Yes, smaller companies produce gas too (though of course “smaller” is a relative term here). For example, Novatek. But they can still sell gas only to Gazprom. Gazprom has the pipeline. And without the pipeline—see above. So then. Novatek has extracted some gas and wants to sell it. So it comes to Mezhregiongaz and says: guys, I’ve got 10 billion cubic meters of gas here. Want to buy it? Production is falling, there’s a shortage, and we’re ready to supply you. In a normal situation, Mezhregiongaz says OK, opens the pipeline, buys the gas at the tariff rate (500 rubles per 1,000 cubic meters), sells it to the end consumer at another tariff (1,000 rubles), and makes a very healthy profit. Which means the shareholders, investors, the state budget, and in general the multinational people of the Russian Federation all get money. But that’s in a normal situation. We’re dealing with a real one. The managers of this “national treasure” are outraged: how can that be?! What about us? We’re practically orphans—our official salaries amount to only hundreds of thousands of dollars. That’s peanuts. We’re efficient! Our formidable managerial talents are worth much more. That’s what the Gazprom people say to themselves. Out loud, after stroking their chins, they say: “No. We can’t buy all of it. We’ll take half.” To the timid question, what should be done with the other half? the efficient managers reply: don’t know. You can blow up balloons with it. We don’t have the money to buy all your gas. No sooner said than done—and things get done at Gazprom even faster. The next day, an unknown company called Trastinvestgaz (TIG) shows up at Novatek. They offer to buy the remaining half at the same price Gazprom itself was paying: 500 rubles. And then, one day later, a genuine economic miracle occurs. Gazprom buys all that gas from TIG at 915 rubles. Even though just two days earlier it had refused to buy it at 500. After that, the gas is passed on to the end consumer, but Gazprom’s margin is no longer 100%—it’s tiny. Barely enough to cover pumping costs. When, some time later, the efficient managers were asked: what was that all about? They said: we didn’t have the money to buy it at the time. But when people started looking into where TIG got its money, it turned out Gazprom itself had extended the loan. So an intermediary company used Gazprom’s own money to buy gas and then sold that same gas right back to Gazprom—at nearly double the price. Technically, it looked even stupider. One gas field, one pipeline, one delivery point. It’s just that through this pipeline, gas from Novatek goes at 500, and then suddenly gas from TIG goes at 915. Appreciate the elegance of the scheme. Everything ingenious is simple, right? By this simple method, Gazprom’s efficient managers earned 1.5 billion rubles just by shuffling papers across a desk. On this episode alone. Obviously, this is just the tiiiiiiniest tip of a veeeeery large iceberg. What happened next was interesting too (Vedomosti didn’t write about this). All the money TIG earned was simply cashed out through “consulting services.” The cash-out operation has been spun off into a separate criminal case. The funny part is that the cashing-out was handled by Latvian citizens, with distinctly Latvian surnames like Vasilyevas and Petrovas. “Those kinds of schemes only worked in the early 1990s,” you’ll cry. And you’ll be wrong. All this happened after the dawn of the era of the “Return of Former Greatness” (a sarcastic reference to official patriotic rhetoric). In 2005–2006, Putin was fully in office as president. Everyone was successfully fighting corruption. United Russia was the guiding and directing force. And the chairman of Gazprom’s board of directors was, terrifyingly enough, a man named Dmitry Anatolyevich. Naturally, Gazprom itself says in official letters on the subject that it has no complaints about this scheme and feels it suffered no damage. Right now I’m actively trying to force the state, as a Gazprom shareholder, to also declare that there was in fact damage and to become a victim and civil claimant in the case as well. So far, it’s not going very well. But hey, ours is a rich country. No point crying over some measly billions. One small detail: at Mezhregiongaz’s office on Kaluzhskoye Highway, there is even a special room set aside for a group of lawyers trying to bury the case. Officially it is registered as a “law office.” Presumably on purpose, to make document seizures more difficult, just in case. One last thing. The investigator on the case, a cheerful lieutenant colonel, said to me at our first meeting: “I’m about to issue a ruling recognizing you as a victim, Alexei Anatolyevich, but I consider it my duty to warn you. A person in Novatek’s management who knew about the scheme and signed everything died tragically under strange circumstances after the investigation began. Apparently he crashed a snowmobile. There was no investigation, but some people consider the death suspicious.” I don’t know the details myself, and I haven’t looked into whether that’s true or not. But just in case, I hereby officially state: I do not ride snowmobiles I do not plan to go alpine skiing this year or next I am not into rock climbing or hang gliding I drive carefully I do not wash windows, especially when they are open I do not like eating fugu fish, or anything of the sort, for breakfast I do not run red lights I swim very well I am not in the habit of walking where bricks, roofing slate, or pianos might fall from above. And so on. I don’t mean that I’m terribly afraid of “countermeasures.” Just in case. So there you have it, my dear readers. And yes, a request to all my friends: if it’s not too much trouble, please post links. I’d really like as many people as possible to learn about the methods used at this “national treasure.” Besides, I have a feeling that in the near future we’ll be watching desperate attempts to sabotage the case. After all, when lots of people know about an investigation, it’s harder to bury it. Not that it’s a huge obstacle, of course, but still... I’ll keep everyone informed as things develop. Update: ooooh, yes, the whole gang is sitting there