Russian tycoon Oleg Deripaska in an interview with the Financial Times proposed splitting natural gas giant Gazprom into two companies.
One of them could supply gas to Europe, while the other might focus on Eastern Siberia and the Far East, he said.
Deripaska also said that rising energy costs were an obstacle for economic growth. Referring to the fact that the price of natural gas is now nearly double that in the U.S., he blamed Gazprom for the situation.
Deripaska went on to lambast Russia's monetary policy.
"Russia will not get any benefit out of World Trade Organization membership unless we pay attention to these issues — the cost of capital and interest [rates]," he said.
The country's banking sector has to be thoroughly reformed, he added, to make loans more accessible to medium and small-scale enterprises.
(MT)
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