Gazprom Armenia fully depends on gas import from Russia via Georgia, the Iran-Armenia Natural Gas Pipeline was intended to decrease the dependency on Russia. The 1.1 bcm of gas per year had given Armenia a considerable bargaining power against Gazprom. Critics now say that placing the pipeline under Russian control would only deepen that dependence and that the agreement could be seen as a big geopolitical victory of Russia in the Transcaucasian region. Gazprom Armenia Gazprom Armenia (), formerly known as ArmRosGazprom (; ), is a subsidiary of the Russian Gazprom company in Armenia. It was founded in 1997 as a joint
Central Energy Italian Gas Holding having a personal interest in the contract. Robert Nowikovsky, an Austrian lawyer linked to Russian operations, was one of the company's directors. The 2008 article "Berlusconi, Centrex, Hexagon 1 and 2 and Gazprom" suggested: Central Energy Company Inc Central Energy Italian Gas Holding Central Energy Italian Inc is a gas distribution and trade company. It is a part of the Central Energy ], a company related to Gazprom. A deal between Italian Eni and Gazprom picked CEI as a partner delivering gas to Italy. Investigations by members of the Italian parliament revealed that Bruno Mentasti-Granelli, who is known as a