Why not Gazprom?
Hilde van den Heuvel of the local party LeusdenVooruit claimed last Monday that the municipality of Leusden “is currently directly and indirectly partly paying for the war waged by Putin” through the contract with Gazprom. That was fact-checked by the ANP, Pointer and Nieuwscheckers. Gazprom does indeed contribute to the Russian treasury. But it proves impossible to prove that the direct financing of the war is involved.
Hilde van den Heuvel of the local party LeusdenVooruit claimed last Monday that the municipality of Leusden “is currently directly and indirectly partly paying for the war waged by Putin” through the contract with Gazprom. That was fact-checked by the ANP, Pointer and Nieuwscheckers. Gazprom does indeed contribute to the Russian treasury. But it proves impossible to prove that the direct financing of the war is involved.
The Russian state owns just over half of Gazprom’s shares. Thus, the company generates income in the state treasury. In 2020 this was 29 billion euros, about 6 percent of Russia’s budget revenue. How much of that money will go to the invasion of Ukraine is hard to say. However, figures from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute show that the Kremlin spent 56 billion euros ($61.7 billion) on the military in 2020, more than 11 percent of total government spending.