Brussels, 12/09/2012 (Agence Europe) - In a public decree published on Tuesday 11 September 2011, a week after the opening of a formal investigation by the European Commission into Russian gas company Gazprom (see EUROPE 10682), suspected of abusing its dominant position on the market and manipulating prices in several countries of central and Eastern Europe, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, put 'strategic' companies under direct control of the Russian state.
The decree states that...