So, my dear friends. I regularly get questions like, "We want to do what you do—how do we become shareholders?" After my latest post about the crooks at Gazprom, the number of such questions increased tenfold. I’m all for it. A lot of rowdy minority shareholders are always better than just one, and there are so many issues to work on that there’s enough for everyone, with plenty left over. So, here’s a short guide on "how to become a shareholder." Additions are welcome—write them in the comments and I’ll post an update. 1. (If you’re specifically interested in "Gazprom") Buy shares through Gazprombank. There is no minimum threshold—you can even buy just one share. To do this, you need to go with your passport to any Gazprombank branch that handles the buying and selling of shares. You can find the addresses of the branches nearest you by calling the bank’s central information service: http://www.gazprombank.ru/rus/private/securities/index.wbp.2. Open an investment account with one of the banks that provide brokerage services. For example, Alfa-Direct at Alfa-Bank: http://www.alfadirect.ru/?page=ad_client&who=private#a_private . You need to complete online registration and then sign the agreement at one of the bank’s branches. 3. Use the services of investment companies directly, such as Finam and Troika Dialog. For example, at FINAM (http://www.finam.ru/), the minimum purchase amount is 10,000 rubles, and to open an account you need to sign an agreement at their office. At Trade Portal, for instance (http://www.tradeportal.ru/), you can open an account entirely online, but the initial amount is at least 20,000 rubles. What should you buy? To start with, I’d recommend buying shares in the five most outrageous companies: Gazprom Transneft Rosneft VTB Sberbank I’ve worked on these and will keep working on them, so for starters you can simply follow my lead. If you want to get into something I haven’t covered yet, I recommend the power companies—all those TGKs and OGKs (Russian territorial and wholesale power generation companies): it’s crook after crook after crook. To everyone who is already a GP (Gazprom) shareholder and has written to me—I’ll send you a sample power of attorney shortly. Update. A detailed account of buying Gazprom shares in St. Petersburg. Update 2. From the comments. "As a broker, I recommend Otkritie (open.ru): no minimum amount and lots of pricing plans (I think there’s even a 'student' one), and the fees are reasonable." Update 3. From the comments. "Here http://nettrader.ru/openaccount.php you can open an account with an initial deposit of 1,500 rubles." Update 4. Perm. From the comments. Today I bought Gazprom shares in Perm. At Gazprombank, 61 Ordzhonikidze Street. They sell starting from one share. The current price is 173 rubles. Before buying shares, you need to open a custody account. That costs 501 rubles. The whole process took about 40 minutes.