Central Europe Eastern Europe Energy Markets & Governance European Union Financial Sanctions and Economic Coercion Geopolitics & Energy Security Russia Trade and tariffs Ukraine United States and Canada

Issue Brief

May 24, 2017

The Kremlin’s gas games in Europe: Implications for policy makers

By Ilya Zaslavskiy

“Gazprom is one of the Kremlin’s main cash generators and international political tools. The company subsidizes Russia’s wars in Ukraine and Syria, as well as the Kremlin’s well-funded effort to undermine European unity through propaganda and support for anti-European parties,” writes Ilya Zaslavskiy in “The Kremlin’s Gas Games in Europe: Implications for Policy Makers,” a new brief from the Atlantic Council’s Dinu Patriciu’s Eurasia Center and the Free Russia Foundation.

“In addition to concerns over corrupt business practices, Gazprom’s operations are particularly disconcerting as the Kremlin uses the company to exert control over the post-Soviet space while deepening European dependence on Russian gas,” Zaslavskiy argues in the issue brief.