Putin backs trans-Mongolian pipeline

Russian leader challenges Gazprom reluctance to accept China’s preferred route for proposed new gas pipeline

President Vladimir Putin summoned Alexei Miller, CEO of Russian state-controlled gas firm Gazprom, to the Kremlin in September to consider options to construct a new gas supply pipeline to China through Mongolia, in an effort to cut through internal Gazprom resistance to the route. Putin stressed that the route had Chinese governmental support. Gazprom had earlier in the month met with representatives of CNPC, one of China’s ‘big three’ oil and gas firms, in Beijing to discuss developing a second gas pipeline to link its vast Eastern Siberian gas resources with the world’s biggest gas import market. A pipeline through Mongolia is not Gazprom’s first choice. Since finalising plans for the fir