Russia's gas champion Gazprom under pressure

Shifting global fundamentals have weakened Russia's gas champion. A shake-up may be on the cards

While the Russian government denied in May that it was planning to split Gazprom, there is no doubt the state-controlled gas monopoly remains under intense pressure both at home and abroad. It's hard to pinpoint exactly when it all started to go wrong for Gazprom, which has long held a sacrosanct position in Russia's state-owned corporate firmament. Russian President Vladimir Putin went so far as to say at the company's 10th anniversary bash in 2003 that the company was an "explicit tool of foreign policy". But since 2007, when, in a moment of hubris, Gazprom chief executive Alexei Miller promised to create the world's first $1 trillion company, the firm has seen its market capitalisation dr