Gazprom decided to liquidate the office in London and transfer jobs to St. Petersburg
The Russian gas monopolist Gazprom is eliminating hundreds of jobs in its foreign offices and will transfer reduced staff to St. Petersburg, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
Reuters reports this with reference to its sources.
One of them said Gazprom's actions fit into a broader capital repatriation program to reduce the vulnerability of Russian companies to sanctions.
Gazprom's largest office abroad is located in the capital of Great Britain, relations with which have become strained amid Prime Minister Theresa May's accusations against Russia of the poisoning of former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal. In total, Gazprom employs a thousand people in London, which is half of the total number of personnel in the monopoly's foreign export and trading offices.
It is expected that during the reorganization about half of all currently available jobs there will be cut. The same number will appear in new offices in St. Petersburg.
At the same time, the agency’s source notes that the decision to withdraw jobs was made even before the Russian-British diplomatic conflict.
Since the announcement of sanctions against Russia in 2014, many companies have reduced their presence abroad. In particular, we are talking about VTB and Rosneft. As for Gazprom, the idea of moving employees from overseas offices to Russia was first considered in 2015, but was shelved due to fears of mass layoffs of employees and raising funds for a capital-intensive operation.
Gazprom has decided to close its London office and move its workforce to St. Petersburg.