Much academic work views the Russian gas sector in the first place from the standpoint of security of supply (European security). Concern is expressed about Europe’s level of dependence on Russian gas, and the lack of readily available alternatives. Few academic research, however, aims at discussing impact of the global economic crisis on the Russian sector and Russia’s response to it. This paper aims to contribute to this discussion by considering the Russian gas sector in the context of challenges caused by the economic downturn and by some other factors as well as the way how the Russian gas industry meet them. Discussions of domestic gas industry development and Russia’s export strategies have been set against this background. The structure of the pa- per reflects aforementioned topics.
