"I think no one in their right mind would want to break Gazprom up," Sergei Ivanov said in a radio interview.
He dismissed as "futile" attempts by the European Union to force Russia to break up the state-controlled natural gas giant into smaller companies.
"This is caused primarily by a drive to pressure us, to force us into making unjustified, unnatural concessions," said Ivanov, who oversees the military-industrial complex in his role as first deputy premier.
He said Russia does not intend to subsidize the power sectors of former Soviet republics, and that the countries must function as independent states on an equal footing.
"One should not forget that in the past 17 years we have actually spent tens of billions of US dollars to subsidize the economies of some CIS states," Ivanov said. Russia is now prepared to sign long-term contracts on market terms with these nations, he added.
