Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) meets Royal Dutch Shell's Chief Executive Jeroen Van der Veer in Moscow's Kremlin 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/Yuri Kochetkov/Pool (RUSSIA)