From Mr Mikhail Korchemkin.

Sir, Alexander Medvedev of Gazprom said the Russian gas monopoly does not want to face unjustifiable surprises like the allocation of pipeline capacity to an unknown ("Gazprom to press on with investments in the EU", May 23). Surprises like that are much more likely to happen in Russia. Gazprom has given gas transit capacity to unknown companies twice. In 2002, substantial pipeline capacity for the transit of Turkmen gas was allocated to an unknown Eural Trans Gas of Hungary. In 2005, the Hungarian broker was replaced by Rosukrenergo, a Swiss-registered intermediary.