July 5, 2007
Carl Mortished, International Business Editor
Gazprom will create its own private army after Russian lawmakers gave the gas utility and Transneft, the state oil pipeline monopoly, the power to create armed units to defend their installations.
A Bill passed yesterday by the Duma, the parliament’s lower house, would allow Gazprom and Transneft to recruit and arm their own security forces, giving them greater powers than private security firms.
The move provoked a storm of protest against the creation of private armies within Russia’s largest corporations. Gennadi Gudkov, a deputy in the Duma who had opposed the Bill, called it a “Pandora’s box . . . This law envisages the creation of corporate armies. If we pass this law, we will all become servants of Gazprom and Transneft.”