Former vice president of Gazprombank, Igor Volobuev, left Russia after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Igor Volobuev believes that the war between Russia and Ukraine had been ongoing for 20 years and began with economic pressure. He told how the Kremlin and Gazprom discredited the Ukrainian authorities and tried to turn the country into a satellite state.
As reported earlier, officials of Uzbekistan and Russia held a number of bilateral meetings and discussed the conditions for the supply of natural gas. As it became known, the Russian authorities put forward conditions.
Russia’s main demand was the handover of Uzbekistan’s gas transmission system to the ownership of Gazprom at market value. Similar demands were put forward to the national company QazaqGaz, which did not agree to such conditions.
Russia’s second demand was to cede the rights to export gas to China. That is, Gazprom offered to become a party to the agreement instead of the Uzbek company UzGasTrade.
As a result of bilateral negotiations in December, the conditions set by the Russian side were lifted.
In April 2022, former Vice President of Gazprombank Igor Volobuev described how the Kremlin and Gazprom discredited the Ukrainian authorities and tried to turn the country into a satellite state.
Volobuev believes that the war between Russia and Ukraine has been ongoing for 20 years and began with economic pressure.
“The task was to attach Ukraine to itself, put it on a gas needle, like Belarus. It was part of the war. I must admit that I was involved in these gas wars when I worked at Gazprom. The first gas war was at the turn of 2005-2006, the second - in 2008-2009,” he said.
During these wars, according to the former top manager, Ukraine was discredited in the eyes of European consumers as a reliable gas supplier, which allowed Russia and Gazprom to offer supply routes that bypass Ukraine.
According to Volobuev, the information war against Ukraine was led by Alexei Gromov, deputy head of the Russian presidential administration.
“Gromov is the main shadow cardinal who manages the information policy course in the Russian Federation and the information policy of Gazprom in particular. In this regard, Gazprom was not a generator of ideas, it was an executor, and all tasks came from above. I received tasks from the spokesman of Gazprom, Sergey Kupriyanov,” concluded the former vice president of Gazprombank.
National company QazaqGaz urgently needs to start exploration of new gas fields in the country and intensify production at existing ones, Ratel reports.
According to the publication, in order to export to China, Uzbekneftegaz is forced to buy resources from Lukoil, which develops fields in Bukhara province, the Russians currently are producing almost one-fourth of the total gas production in the country. And for domestic consumption, Uzbekistan has begun gas purchases in Turkmenistan, which are limited due to cold weather, which caused problems at pumping stations.
Gazprom, which actually lost the European market after the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine, is vitally interested in Central Asia.
“However, Russia did not particularly hide its interest before. For example, key projects to modernize Uzbekistan’s gas transmission system, drilling and repairing wells in order to increase production are financed by the Russian Gazprombank secured by gas infrastructure. At the same time, Enter Engineering, a company affiliated with the bank, is the general contractor.
