in the campaign “Gas Wars and Energy Blackmail (2006–2009)”
The imposition of corrupt gas-supply schemes through intermediary companies: Moscow "used a series of intermediary trading companies (Itera from 1998, Eural Trans Gas from 2003, Rosukrenergo (RUE) from 2005) to transport, and sometimes to supply, the gas to Ukraine," a practice that "was long criticized in European government circles and by corporate governance bodies (where there was concern about their opacity)"[1]. RUE's co-owner Dmytro Firtash told the US ambassador in December 2008 outright that "He acknowledged ties to Russian organized crime figure Seymon Mogilevich, stating he needed Mogilevich's approval to get into business in the first place"[2].