Putin threatens energy-sector oligarchs

Vladimir Putin hit out at some of Russia’s biggest tycoons on the 24 February 2010 for failing to make investments in the electricity sector, as record demand during the severe winter puts worn-out generation capacity under renewed strain.

The Russian prime minister singled out Vladimir Potanin, Mikhail Prokhorov, Viktor Vekselberg and Leonid Lebedev, the billionaire owners of several of Russia’s power generation companies, for failing to upgrade capacity despite pledges to do so when the plants were privatised in 2007/08.