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
Gazprom that if supplies were cut, it would deny Gazprom access to its pipelines, which would impair gas transportation to Europe. However, on 1 January 2007, just a few hours before the deadline, Belarus and Gazprom signed a last-minute agreement. Under the agreement, Belarus undertook to pay $100 per 1,000 cubic metre in 2007. The agreement also allowed Gazprom to purchase 50 percent of the shares in Beltransgaz, the Belarusian pipeline network. Immediately following the signing of this agreement, Belarus declared a $42/ton transportation tax on Russian oil travelling through the Gazprom pipelines crossing its territory. On 13 March 2008, after