the european union launched a  legal attack on gazprom on wednesday, stoking tensions  with moscow as it accused the russian gas giant of overcharging  buyers in eastern europe and hindering competition european commission antitrust chief margrethe vestager said  gazprom was barring eu clients from selling on its gas to other  states   a particular concern in recent efforts to aid ukraine   and pressuring governments to back its pipeline interests russian foreign minister sergei lavrov said that the charges were 'absolutely unacceptable' the european union launched a legal attack on gazprom on wednesday, stoking tensions with moscow as it accused the russian gas giant of overcharging buyers in eastern europe and hindering competition  european commission antitrust chief margrethe vestager (pictured) said gazprom was barring eu clients from selling on its gas to otherstates  state controlled gazprom is a vital supplier of energy to  europe despite the eu's frequent political disputes with moscow the commission's investigation, opened in september 2012,  had initially covered poland, the czech republic, slovakia,  hungary, bulgaria, estonia, latvia and lithuania relations with russia, and gazprom in particular, have since  been poisoned more by the east west confrontation over ukraine 'gazprom is dominant in all these markets,' eu competition  commissioner vestager told a news conference 'our preliminary  view alleges that gazprom is abusing this position' 'gazprom has been able to charge higher prices in some  countries without fearing that  gas would flow in from where  prices were lower,' she said of contracts with the three  ex soviet baltic states and formerly communist poland and  bulgaria vestager said prices in some countries were as much as 40  per cent higher than in others lithuanian president dalia grybauskaite welcomed the  charges, saying: 'the era of kremlin backed political and  economic blackmail draws to a close' russian foreign minister sergei lavrov said that the charges were 'absolutely unacceptable' noting the investigation had begun before russia annexed  crimea from ukraine, vestager said 'this case is not political' but acknowledged some would see political elements in it gazprom responded by calling the charges, to which it has 12  weeks to respond, 'unfounded' and saying it expected a  resolution within the framework of previous undertakings between  the kremlin and brussels 'on the intergovernmental level' russian foreign minister sergei lavrov said on wednesday that the eu charges against gazprom were an unacceptable attempt to retroactively apply the bloc's latest energy rules to earlier contracts asked to comment on the case, lavrov said in an interview with three radio stations: 'all contracts in effect now that gazprom signed with its partners, were signed with full respect of the legal regime that existed in the eu at the time 'after the eu adopted the so called third energy package there have been attempts, and they continue now, to retrospectively, retroactively apply those requirements to old contracts as well that is absolutely unacceptable' the eu has brokered deals to keep gas flowing to ukraine  despite the conflict between kiev and moscow, but efforts to  supply gas via eastern eu states have been hindered by contracts  with gazprom that prohibit the re export of russian gas gazprom had also pressured poland and bulgaria into  accepting unfavourable terms over gas pipeline control and  construction, the commissioner said the decision to move against gazprom comes a week after  vestager charged us tech giant google with abusing  its market power, following five years of hesitation by her  predecessor she said, however, that in other cases she would be  willing to negotiate with firms without pressing charges the dane has appeared determined to challenge big corporate  powers since taking on the powerful post in november, regardless  of past offers of compromise from both google and gazprom despite insisting she would look only at the legal merits of  a case that focuses on gazprom's pricing policies for different  customers, the accusations will not ease frictions with moscow  over ukraine in which gas supplies have played a major role gazprom offered concessions to vestager's predecessor last  year in a bid to settle the case and avoid a possible fine but  talks failed over its refusal to cut prices in eastern europe the russian behemoth, with annual sales of some $100  billion, supplies about 30 per cent of the 28 nation eu's natural  gas it has been under investigation since september 2012,  including for hampering the flow of gas across europe vestager can order companies to change their business  practices and is theoretically able to levy fines of up to 10  per cent of their annual global turnover
antitrust gazprom eu russian sergei lavrov kremlin
antitrust chief  said gazprom is barring eu clients from selling on its gas . russian foreign minister sergei lavrov said charges were 'unacceptable'. 'era of kremlin backed  economic blackmail draws to a close'   lithuania 