The Kremlin-owned gas company Gazprom has plunged to its first annual loss in more than 20 years, after gas sales more than halved following Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. The company made a net loss of 629bn roubles (£5.5bn) in 2023 amid dwindling gas trade with Europe, once Gazprom’s main sales market, as a result of sanctions and the throttling of pipelines to the continent. The results highlight the dramatic decline of the company, which since the collapse of the Soviet Union has been one of Russia’s most powerful, with its gas supplies often used as a leverage in disputes with neighbours such as Ukraine and Moldova. Analysts had expected net income of 447bn roubles, according to the Interfax news agency. According to analysis by Reuters, it was Gazprom’s first annual loss since the late 1990s/early 2000s, when Alexei Miller, an ally of the then newly installed President Putin, took over the company in 2001. Gazprom’s 2023 loss followed a net profit of 1.2tn roubles the previous year. The company, which is now headquartered in St Petersburg, made heavy losses in the late 1990s after it racked up foreign-currency debt, inflated in rouble terms by the financial crisis of 1998....