Russian energy giant Gazprom is moving staff and families out of Europe and arranging Turkish lessons for them, Russian newspaper says

Nearly all the employees of Russian energy giant Gazprom who work on the Nord Stream and TurkStream gas pipelines left the European Union last year.

Source: Russian online newspaper The Moscow Times, citing a number of company employees

Details: Two employees said they were heading to Türkiye, where the company plans to establish a gas hub.

Last year saw Gazprom employees rushing to learn Turkish, and the company arranged language courses for them. By the end of the year, they were looking for apartments in Istanbul and moving their belongings and families there.

It isn’t just Gazprom’s Russian employees who are reportedly leaving Europe – EU residents who worked at Gazprom are too.

The Moscow Times reports that last year, Gazprom employees helped clean up after the Nord Stream gas pipeline explosion (many European companies declined to participate in the response due to sanctions), and TurkStream operations continued to be managed through a Dutch company. However, their work was hampered by sanctions imposed on the management of Gazprom’s European companies and on the companies themselves.

Gazprom also lost its companies in Germany (Securing Energy for Europe GmbH) and in the United Kingdom (Gazprom Marketing & Trading), with their assets being nationalised. Last year, the Russian monopoly liquidated two Dutch companies – Gazprom Sakhalin Holdings B.V. and Gazprom Finance B.V. The former had held Gazprom's stake in the operator of the Sakhalin-2 project.

Both these entities, as noted by Russia's Ministry of Finance, enabled Gazprom to pay tax at an effective rate of 2-3% and withdraw profits from Russia. However, this benefit ceased after Russia's double tax treaty with the Netherlands was terminated. Gazprom subsequently transferred the companies’ assets to Russian jurisdiction.

Since the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine ceased at the beginning of 2025, Gazprom is left with just one of its five pre-war gas delivery routes to Europe: TurkStream.

Read also: More trouble ahead: as Russia enters 2025, how is the economy doing?

Background: Gazprom shares have plummeted to RUB 106 (approx. US$1.03), their lowest level since 2009.

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