Today's Financial Times leads with a takeover story with a difference. It concerns the Russian energy giant Gazprom and Centrica, which supplies energy to the UK market through British Gas.
According to the report (subscription only), Tony Blair believes the government should make no attempt to block such a sale. Such is Moscow's political control over the firm, the banter on the BBC Five Live Breakfast show was that this could mean British consumers paying their gas bills direct to the Kremlin.
The prime minister appears to have put one principle above another - and the cause of resisting economic nationalism in EU markets has trumped that of the security of UK energy supplies.
To the economic liberal there is evidence of an upswing of unnecessary economic nationalism around the world - the Dubai ports deal in the US, France fighting to keep Danone out of foreign hands - but the Gazprom does look to be a special case. The Kremlin showed it was unafraid to use what is now the world's second biggest energy company for political ends when it cut off gas supplies to Ukraine. Guardian writer Nils Pratley argued last week that the Centrica sale would be acceptable if Gazprom acted like a normal company, rather than as "a monopolist that can't be relied upon to act commercially".
The final word goes to George Soros, who warned in a letter to the FT that, through Gazprom, Europe was relying "on a country that does not hesitate to use its monopoly power in devious and arbitrary ways". Of course, that is the last word in terms of this post only. Please add your comments below.
