The European Union's antitrust watchdog is preparing to initiate formal legal proceedings against Russian state-owned energy giant OAO Gazprom (GAZP.RS), saying it acted unfairly on the bloc's eastern flanks, its chief said Thursday.

"It would be premature to anticipate when the next steps might be taken, but we have now moved to the phase of preparing a statement of objections [the first step in formal legal proceedings]," EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said, according to the text of a speech delivered in Lithuania . "We suspect that Gazprom has been hindering the free flow of gas across member states [of the EU] and the diversification of sources of supply."

He added the commission suspects it has imposed unfair prices on its customers. He was speaking in Vilnius at a European Competition Day hosted by Lithuania , which holds the EU's six-month rotating presidency.

"We are dealing with the complaint by Lithuania, which was filed after our preliminary probe had started, but the geographic scope of our investigation is wider, encompassing the other Baltic states, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Bulgaria," he said.

A year ago, the EU escalated its push to break Russia 's domination of Europe 's natural-gas supplies as it launched an investigation following raids on the company's offices in September 2011.

Gazprom has previously said it considered the EU's investigation "pressure aimed at influencing prices" and an attempt to "solve the economic problems of the EU, in particular its new members in Eastern Europe , at the expense of Russia ."
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