All over Moscow the city is plastered with posters celebrating the 15th anniversary of the foundation of Gazprom as the leading joint stock company of Russian industry. “From victory to victory”, the slogan reads, parading the bellicose self-image of this state-controlled monopoly. The anniversary was celebrated on Monday night with an extravagant party in the Kremlin, with Tina Turner and Russian pop star Alla Pugacheva performing to a crowd of 6,000, including President Vladimir Putin and his chosen successor, Dmitry Medvedev.

On Tuesday Mr Putin was representing Gazprom at a rather different occasion: locked in face-to-face negotiations with Viktor Yushchenko, the Ukrainian president, to decide if and when Ukraine would pay an outstanding gas bill of $1.5bn, or have its energy supplies drastically reduced in mid-winter. To the relief of Ukrainian consumers, no doubt, they agreed a deal, although details have yet to emerge. In a welcome move they also agreed to eliminate from the trade the untransparent intermediary Rosukrenergo.