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Just how much influence does Gazprom have in Europe? A factual answer can be found in a new book, Expanding Eurasia: Russia's European Ambitions, written by Janusz Bugajski and published by the Washington-based think tank, Center for Security and International Studies (CSIS). Bugajski is a scholar at CSIS after having held posts at Radio Free Europe, the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Department of Defense. In a chapter entitled "Buying Europe: Purchase as Politics," Bugajski documents the extent of Gazprom's corporate holdings in EU member states and characterizes the results of Gazprom's ongoing shopping spree as a clue to Russian monopolistic tendencies and Russian influence in these countries.

When Dmitry Medvedev was sworn in as President of the Russian Federation in May 2008, western commentators focused more on Vladimir Putin's continuing hold on power in his new position as prime minister than on Medvedev's promotion. Bugajski's book focuses on a less evident, behind the scenes issue - the incessant expansion of the power of Gazprom as a greater priority than both the government and the military for Russia's "hidden" ruling troika: Putin, Medvedev and Zubkov. On the day that Medvedev became president, he relinquished his position as the Chairman of Gazprom to none other than Putin's close personal associate and former prime minister, Viktor Zubkov. Essentially, this democratic transition in the Kremlin was nothing less than a high-level game of musical chairs. The real key to Russian power is Gazprom, explains British expert Jonathan Eyal, Director of International Security Studies at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI). Eyal writes that, "during the last eight years of Mr. Putin's rule, most of Russia's ‘oligarchs,' the robber barons who seized control of the country's raw materials during the 1990s, were either driven into exile, thrown into jail or simply bought out. Gazprom's expansion knew no legal limits."

Gazprom's decisions - however financially strategic in building up its monopolistic expansion - are also politically informed. Many of its board members are government officials; for example, Russia's First Deputy Prime Minister (Zubkov), the Industry and Trade Minister (Khristenko), and the Economic Development and Trade Minister (Nabiullina), respectively. These officials have access to government intelligence and have close relations with the Kremlin. Evidence of this political bias has come to light through investigations by European governments into the origins of capital entering Russia - often masked as incoming from offshore firms, complex joint ventures and subsidiaries registered in third-party countries. Investigations are often stymied by Gazprom's defenses - under the Putin administration, Gazprom constructed a network of personal contacts with foreign officials, as well as an intricate web of dummy companies. In some central and eastern European countries, Gazprom's dummy companies have been accused of channeling funds to election campaigns and political parties that pursue Russian national interests in those countries.

Today, Gazprom's web of holdings has grown even wider since Vladimir Putin held the presidency. As documented in Bugajski's book, here is a (undoubtedly incomplete) list of Gazprom's holdings in Europe.
European Union:

* Germany
o Germany is Russia's largest trading partner with around 4,000 German companies represented in the Russian economy. German energy companies facilitate close relations between Berlin and Moscow - for example, Nord Stream - the Russo-German gas pipeline.
o Ruhrgas, a leading German company and a top European public utility company, owns seven percent of Gazprom, in return for a significant Russian share in Ruhrgas's energy distribution networks in Germany.
o Gazprom owns 51 percent of Nord Stream and 50 percent of Wingas, a German gas distribution and storage company that is a subsidiary of Wintershall, itself a subsidiary of BASF and Gazprom.
* United Kingdom
o Britain is the second-largest source of foreign direct investment in Russia, with bilateral trade reaching $16.3 billion in 2006.
o Gazprom has announced its hopes of gaining 10 percent of the UK natural gas market by 2010.
* France
o Both Gazprom and the French gas company Total have expressed interest in a planned trans-Saharan pipeline from Nigeria to Algeria, which would deliver gas to Europe.
* Italy
o Italy emerged as Russia's second-largest trading partner.
o The South Stream pipeline (Russia to Italy via southeast Europe under the Black Sea) agreement was signed between Gazprom and Eni, the largest Italian company. Eni and Gazprom signed a strategic partnership in 2006, reportedly aimed at sharing assets and developing infrastructure in gas-rich Libya.
* Spain and Portugal
o In 2006, Gazprom began working with two major Spanish companies: Endesa, the country's largest utility company and Repsol YPF, an integrated Spanish oil and gas company which is the largest shareholder in Gas Natural SDG.
o Gazprom owns 6.6 percent of the leading energy corporation in Portugal, Galp Energia SGPS, which holds a quota for gas supplies through Medgaz, a planned pipeline from Algeria to Spain. (Endesa also owns 12% of the planned Medgaz pipeline.)
* Benelux
o Fluxys, one of the largest gas companies in Belgium, has a 25-year deal with Gazprom to build an underground storage site in northern Belgium.
o Gazprom owns 10 percent of the pipeline that connects Belgium and Britain and is pursuing a similar arrangement with the Dutch-British link.
* Austria
o Gazprom works closely with OMV, the leading Austrian oil and gas company, and owns shares in several gas distribution networks. Gazprom also holds major ownership in a major underground gas storage installation near Salzburg.
* Scandinavia (including Norway)
o Gazprom, together with France's Total and Norway's StatoilHydro, owns 51 percent of the Shtokman Development Company.
o Gazprom owns 25 percent of Gasum Oy, the Finnish monopoly on gas supply and distribution in Finland.
* Greece and Cyprus
o Greece is participating in the construction of the first Russian-owned pipeline in the EU, the Burgas-Alexandroupolis line (Bulgarian Black Sea to Greece). Greece also is playing a role in the construction of South Stream.
* Latvia
o 80 percent of Latvia's gas imports are from Gazprom, which also has stakes in Latvijas Gāze, Latvia's national gas monopoly.
* Estonia
o Gazprom owns 37 percent of Eesti Gaas, the national gas monopoly.
* Lithuania
o Gazprom owns 37.1 percent of Lietuvos Dujos, the national gas monopoly of Lithuania, and 30 percent of Stella-Vitae, a major gas importer which was replaced by Dujotekana in 2001.
* Poland
o Gazprom was the seventh-largest investor in Poland in 2004. Since then, its presence has shrunk.
o Gazprom owns 48 percent in EuRoPol Gaz, a major transit-gas pipeline system and 16 percent in another Polish company, Gaz Trading.
* Hungary
o Gazprom in the largest investor in Hungary. Gazprom established PanRuzGaz Hungarian-Russian Gas which established a deal in 1994 by selling gas purchased through Gazprom and it was the eighth-largest company in Hungary by 2003.
o In 2005, Gazprombank (a Gazprom subsidiary) bought the General Banking and Trust Company (AEB), whose Russian chairman is the richest person in Hungary.
* Czech Republic
o In 2005, the German subsidiary of Gazprom (ZMB) bought 37.5 percent of the Czech gas-wholesaler, Gas-Invest.
* Slovakia
o Gazprom owns 50 percent of Slovrusgas, a gas transportation and marketing company.
o Gazprom together with Ruhrgas and Gaz de France own 49 percent of Slovakia's SPP pipeline, which transports 70 percent of the gas supplied by Russia via Ukraine to Europe.
* Slovenia
o Gazprom owns 7.6 percent of Slovenia's Tagdem gas trading company.
* Bulgaria
o Gazprom wholly owns Bulgaria's Topenergo, a gas trading and transportation enterprise and owns 50 percent of Overgas, the largest private gas retailer and transporter in Bulgaria.
o Lukoil holds 93.82 percent of the shares of Neftochim Burgas, the largest refinery in the Balkans, which accounts for nine percent of Bulgaria's GDP.
* Romania
o Through its German subsidiary (ZGG), Gazprom holds 26 percent of importer-distributor Wirom Gas. Gazprom is interested in purchasing the two main Romanian gas companies: Distrigaz Nord and Distrigaz Sud.
o Along with Bulgaria's Neftochim Burgas, Lukoil holds almost 95 percent of Romania's Petrotel refinery in Ploieşti.

Former Yugoslavia:

* Serbia
o By 2005, Russian investment in Serbia amounted to $400 million.
o Gazprom owns 50 percent of the Progresgaz gas company and 75 percent of the YugoRosGaz gas company.
o In 2008, Russia and Serbia signed an agreement to create a joint company to construct Serbia's section of the South Stream pipeline.
* Croatia
o Lukoil and Sibneft are seeking stakes in Industrija Nafte (INA), Croatia's major oil company which is being privatized by the Croatian government.
* Bosnia and Herzegovina
o In 2007, Republika Srpska sold a majority stake in the Bosanski Brod oil refinery and in the Modrica and Petrol fuel-retailers to Russia's Zarubezhneft.

Other European Countries:

* Ukraine
o At the outcome of the gas conflicts in 2009, a major corporate intermediary RosUkrEnergo was half owned by Gazprom.
* Belarus
o Gazprom owns 50 percent of Beltransgaz, Belarus' major gas company.