[en] The fourth article in a series about changes in the European natural gas market focuses on Russia, a country with gigantic potential reserves (216,000 billion m³) and a production unequalled in the world (780.4 billion m³ in 1992 in the Russian Federation), but also with enormous economic and technical problems. The question is what role Russia is able to play in the European natural gas supply. Attention is paid to the organizational structure in former Soviet Union regarding the natural gas industry, the environmental effects of exploration and exploitation, the need for foreign capital, and the disappointing progress of the 1991 Energy Charter. On a short term the infrastructure must be improved. Also the conflicts on the price of natural gas transport between the transfer countries Ukraine, Slovenia and Czechoslovakia and the West-European clients must be solved. 1 fig., 7 ills., 2 tabs