Last month, Gazprom posted a huge drop in its FY 2022 profits as sanctions from Russia's western customers took a toll. The company's profits for the year clocked in at 1.226 trillion rubles ($15.4 billion), 41% lower than in 2021 with the company citing a windfall tax imposed by Moscow last year as the reason for the decline. The state controlled company has decided not to pay dividends for the entire year 2022, having previously paid an interim dividend of 1,208 billion rubles ($15 billion) last autumn for the results recorded in the first half of 2022. Gazprom's Deputy General Director Famil Sadygov has tried to put a positive spin on the bad situation: " We did not wait for the results for the whole year, but offered the shareholders the opportunity to receive, in advance, a significant amount. Due to this fact, the received dividends have a real value higher than the amount paid at the end of the previous exercise ," he told shareholders.