Wow: "Gazprom Reaches Deal With EDF to Invest in European Power Plants" (OGZPY)

There's a lot of geo-polticking in this one. EDF is 85% owned by the French state while GAZ is one of those 50.1% Russian deals.
(not counting Putin's personal 4.5% stake)

From the New York Times:

ST. PETERSBURG — Gazprom, the Russian natural gas company, reached a deal Friday with EDF of France to jointly invest in gas-fired power plants in Europe, gaining an important toehold for its exports at a time when competition from shale gas and liquefied natural gas is disrupting its main business.

Under the agreement, the power plants would use natural gas supplied exclusively by Gazprom. The company is under intense pressure to develop a new business model as prices for gas and competing energy sources decline. 

Gas for sale on the European spot market costs less than the oil-linked prices under the Russian company’s long-term contracts. At the same time, global economic stagnation and a boom in shale gas in the United States are driving down the price of coal, a competitor to gas....MUCH MORE

See also:
Putin, Russian Oligarchs Rattled By Rising Importance of EU Shale Gas
"It’s Amazing: You Poke Gazprom, and Putin Screams" (OGZPY)
Nice Shack: "RuLeaks posts photos of alleged 'Putin Palace'"
UPDATED:"Gazprom and Igor Sechin: The Dale Carnegies of Gas"

Former Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin passed away on Wednesday morning at the age of 72. Best known in the West for co-chairing the Gore-Chernomyrdin Commission on nuclear safety, which largely failed in its goal of promoting bilateral cooperation between Washington and Moscow, Chernomyrdin presided over an extremely turbulent period of Russian history, including the controversial privatizations of the mid-1990s and the First Chechen War....

...Chernomyrdin is survived by ("approximately") two sons and a wealth of unforgettable lines. Here are a few of the best:

On economic reform: "We wanted better, but it turned out as always."
On his background on energy minister: "I have grown up in the atmosphere of oil and gas."
On dealing with the frequently uncooperative Duma: "Government is not the organ in which one uses his tongue only."
On Russia's unstable party system: "Whatever party we establish, it always turns out to be the Soviet Communist Party."
On his critics: "If your hands are itchy, scratch yourselves in other spots."
On the future: "We will live so well that our children and grandchildren will envy us!"
On Ukraine's Orange Revolution:  "American ears are sticking out everywhere."
On his family: "I have approximately two sons."
On political efficiency: "We accomplished all items: from A to B."
On women: "You can't scare a woman with high-heeled shoes."

He'll always be Gazprom to me.