Oh. Our dear little Gazprom has joined the public polemic. And for this they chose not just anything, but the holy of holies — the glossy corporate magazine with the original title Gazprom. It ran an article with the heart-rending title "The Fight for Truth." The piece is written in a playful style clearly meant to highlight the elegance with which mighty Gazprom experts are thrashing an unlucky minority shareholder. Particularly delightful are the fantastical turns of phrase like "the fame of Herostratus (a reference to notoriety achieved through destructive acts) still keeps many people awake at night". All that’s missing is the classic "these days it’s fashionable to spit on everything". The full masterpiece is below the cut. Here are two amusing excerpts: A certain Mr. Navalny, a minority shareholder in Gazprom (and any Russian citizen with a few extra hundred rubles in his pocket can become one by buying a single share), has leveled accusations against Gazprom’s sales subsidiary, Mezhregiongaz LLC (MRG). It should be noted that making claims against companies in which our hero buys securities is for him both a professional hobby and a way of earning political capital at the same time. He bought Rosneft shares — and started terrorizing Rosneft (for this Mr. Navalny actively uses his internet blog); he bought Gazprom shares — and set to work on Gazprom. ... Mr. Navalny, of course, disagrees with this — the sensation turned out to be a dud, and unlike Julia Roberts, he clearly failed in the role of the brave housewife Erin Brockovich from the film of the same name, exposing dirty corporations. So, as was only to be expected, in his blog he baselessly accuses law enforcement agencies of corruption and puts on his now-familiar mask of a martyr for truth in order to win support from the most gullible and soft-hearted citizens.
My comments: Dear Gazprom people. I’m actually offended. I expected something stronger from you than some Nikolai Khrenkov and his childish lies. "the law enforcement agencies that investigated this case found no evidence of any crime in the actions of MRG managers" ... "they found no violations in the conclusion of gas supply contracts with Trustinvestgaz LLC, nor any actions that violated or ran counter to the interests of Gazprom OJSC" Yes, yes, sure. That’s exactly how it is. No violations. Nothing was found. And the criminal case that was opened, along with the charges brought against Gazprom employees — that’s just for fun. I would even suggest that Gazprom issue an official press release under the headline: "The criminal case opened against Gazprom employees has nothing to do with Gazprom employees, even though it was opened against them because they are Gazprom employees (oops, now we’re confused)" ** The text does not say where Nikolai Khrenkov got his information. It merely notes that it came from a "relevant document." Well then, sure. My apologies. If it’s from a relevant one, then we believe it. As for the rest, it’s pointless even to comment. In short, I can’t give Gazprom’s PR people and Nikolai Khrenkov a passing grade, even though he appears to be deputy director of the Institute of National Energy. (thanks to konfuzij) So we’ll wait for something more entertaining from Gazprom and continue "terrorizing in blogs." Special thanks to nalymov ** for providing the scans.