Russian gas giant Gazprom will celebrate its 20-year anniversary Thursday at a $2 million gala evening at the State Kremlin Palace.
President Vladimir Putin is expected to personally congratulate the company’s employees, as he did on Gazprom’s tenth and 15-year anniversaries.
The evening at the Kremlin will continue with a concert that will include performances by British rock musician Sting and Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli.
Journalists still recall Gazprom’s last anniversary bash, which included performances by Tina Turner and Deep Purple.
This time, the company’s employees will also see performances by stars of the Bolshoi Theater, rock group Moralny Kodeks, and singers Alexander Marshal, Diana Arbenina and Alexander Sklyar. The celebration at the Kremlin cost the company nearly $2 million.
The company’s actual birthday is considered to be February 17, as it was on this day in 1993 that then Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin signed resolution No. 138 to found Gazprom.
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, who is on a tour of Latin America, congratulated the company on Wednesday, calling it a “leader of the global fuel and energy market.”
Medvedev, who chaired Gazprom’s board of directors for more than seven years, said Gazprom is improving the effectiveness of corporate governance, and recalled that “for a long time the board of directors worked on this issue in particular.”
The prime minister said Gazprom has a staff of genuine professional and expressed the hope that the company “will continue to effectively develop in the interests of the country, in the interests of our citizens, increase the might of our nation.”
