Royal Dutch Shell's Chief Executive Jeroen Van der Veer (from R-L), Russian Resources Minister Yuri Trutnev and Gazprom's foreign economic department, Stanislav Tsygankov, talk to the media after a meeting in Moscow December 21, 2006. Russia's gas monopoly Gazprom clinched a $7.45 billion deal on Thursday to buy half of the Sakhalin-2 project from Shell and its partners, sealing the Kremlin's grip on the huge Russian energy sector. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin (RUSSIA)