Lithuania is a whistleblower in the probe the European Commission has launched in the Russian gas giant Gazprom, reports Euractiv.

According to the Lithuanian Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius, reports on antitrust investigations only confirm the matters which the country has already repeatedly spotlighted.

“We can only reaffirm that Lithuania addressed the EC Competition Directorate back in the spring of 2011,” he says.

Besides, the Lithuanian government has already issued an official statement, welcoming the EK’s move.

The commission raises concern that the company may have been abusing its dominant position in central and eastern European gas supply markets. It has named eight countries as the “victims” – Poland, The Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

But the list could be expanded if new elements come to the surface, officials say.

The probe is said to focus on suspicions that the company has been preventing free flow of gas across the EU, interfering with supply diversification.

The EC thinks this that linking the price of gas to oil prices could have led to imposing unfair prices on customers.

Asked whether the probe applies to some specific pipeline projects aimed at bringing gas from sources other than Russia, ES authorities say:

“We look at conditions, applied by Gazprom, which may impede the diversification of sources of supply, that relate to the use of infrastructure, and that could encompass existing or future infrastructure. This is not related to one specific project.”

Ref: 105.105.105.2086