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Here’s a job to tax even the most optimistic of agency bosses.
Mega-sized Russian gas producer Gazprom (left) is looking for a UK agency, according to Campaign. Russia isn’t exactly flavour of the month with other countries in Europe at the moment, with more sanctions against it being threatened because of its intervention in the Ukraine.
Russia, in turn, is threatening to deny airspace to European and US planes (given the size of Russia this would cause a long-haul problem or three) and from time to time turns off gas supplies to Ukraine – which presumably involves Gazprom.
Gazprom, formerly the Russian state energy authority, has fingers in lots of Russian pies and is reckoned to account for about ten per cent of Russian GDP. It’s also big in football being the owner of big-spending Zenit St Petersburg, a UEFA Champion’s League sponsor and sponsor of Schalke 04 in Germany (although that might not last) and Red Star Belgrade.
It’s also Chelsea FC’s ‘Global Energy Partner,’ which may mean more than filling up John Terry’s Bentley (Gazprom is also a huge oil producer). Chelsea owner Roman Abramovitch has connections with Gazprom.
So a tricky one then. But the budget shouldn’t be a problem.
