GAZPROM has expressed an interest in investing up to $3bn in Bolivia, putting the Russian gas monopoly on a collision course with Washington. The deal would be Gazprom’s first investment in the American hemisphere, and is likely to fuel concerns about the Kremlin-controlled firm’s global ambitions ahead of next month’s G8 summit in St Petersburg.

Gazprom has made a number of international acquisitions, including the purchase last week of Pennine Natural Gas in the UK. It has also been linked to Centrica, Britain’s biggest gas distributor.

But the company, which supplies a quarter of Europe’s gas, has aroused concern because of its aggressive diplomacy. US Vice-President Dick Cheney recently accused Russia of using energy as a tool of ‘intimidation and blackmail’.

Washington may be alarmed by Gazprom’s sudden appearance in the Americas and aggrieved that Russia is developing ties with Bolivia. The Latin American country, led by socialist president Evo Morales, recently renationalised its energy industry, to the detriment of western oil companies. But analysts predict Russia will be unapologetic.

Chris Weafer of Alfa Bank in Moscow said the deal was partly a Kremlin riposte to attempts by the US to cultivate allies among the former Soviet states of the gas-rich Caspian region.

“It has a political as well as an economic rationale,” he said.—Dawn/The Guardian News Service