Political Economy of the Place and Importance of Gazprom for Russia

Energy always becomes a significant fact for the living of people in the course of human history. The need for energy obtained from different sources and used for different aims in various periods in the history abides all the time. In this sense, the moment, in which the energy need has maximized, was the process of occurrence of industrial revolution and then capitalism that has improved day by day and expanded throughout the whole world. The energy requirement crucial for the completion of commodity chain as the core of the capitalism becomes completely as one of the basic requirements of the system beyond simply being a need for daily life. Today possessing energy sources also means possessing a significant economic and political power on both national and international bases. United States of America and Russian Federation are two prominent countries that have such a power and dynamically use economic and political aspects of this power in various mediums all over the world. The collaboration of these two main countries over the energy also gives the key of economic and political alliances at the same time. It is possible to see this power of Russia obtained from its rich underground sources within every decision, every step taken in both national and international context besides heavy industry infrastructure remained from the Soviet Union. In this respect, Gazprom is one of the foremost corporations in the world by conveying to a state-owned company as a result of nationalization politics carried out especially for regarding the energy sector and increasing the number of sectors and companies it contains every day by the year of 2000, when Vladimir Putin became the president, and afterwards, and its sphere of influence not only in Russian, post-Soviet, European and Far Eastern geographies but also in the rest of the world also includes economic and political decisions and interventions. By this work, it will aim to investigate the economic and political aspects of the place and importance of Gazprom for Russia within the context of national and international context through such attributes of it. For this reason, firstly it will handle a historical examination over USSR and Boris Yeltsin eras, and then it will try to make a political-economic analysis upon the significance of Gazprom on national and international bases.