#6329
#14
Russia's Gazprom Posts Kremlin Aide
June 28, 2002
By ANGELA CHARLTON
MOSCOW (AP) - Russian natural gas giant Gazprom replaced its chairman with a Kremlin aide on Friday, ending the tenure of a one-time business titan as the government tries to clear up financial questions at the country's largest company.
The efforts are seen as a litmus test for broader economic reforms.
Gazprom, the world's biggest gas producer and source of more than a quarter of Europe's gas, also announced a more optimistic forecast for this year. It predicted export revenues would be as much as half a billion dollars higher than expected because of rallying world oil prices.
The removal of Rem Vyakhirev as chairman of the board had been largely expected, but served as the latest blow to a man who dominated Russia's business scene in the 1990s. Vyakhirev, 68, had been at Gazprom since its founding in 1989 and had good relations with Boris Yeltsin's Kremlin, but things have been rockier since Vladimir Putin became president.
The board replaced Vyakhirev with Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of Putin's administration and a former Gazprom chairman. Vyakhirev was named as an adviser to Medvedev.
A year ago, Putin ousted Vyakhirev as Gazprom's chief executive and replaced him with presidential ally Alexei Miller, giving Vyakhirev the less-influential chairman post.
Since Miller's arrival, he and the government have removed most of Gazprom's old managers, many of whom are accused of stripping the company of billions of dollars' worth of production and processing assets.
Gazprom also said it would sell off its media assets by the end of this year as part of broader efforts to get rid of loss-making subsidiaries. Gazprom's media arm took over Russia's largest independent television channel, NTV, in April 2001, prompting intense criticism from civil rights advocates who viewed the move as a Kremlin-sponsored bid to quash critical reporting on the war in Chechnya and other issues.
Although the government owns 38 percent of Gazprom shares, the company had resisted attempts to clear up questions about its finances, scaring away investors. The success or failure of the changes at Gazprom are seen as a test of Putin's efforts to reform several huge Russian conglomerates accused of murky financial dealings.
The government retained six of the 11 seats on Gazprom's board.
Also ousted from the board was Vyacheslav Sheremet, chairman of Gazprom's petrochemical subsidiary Sibur, who was detained earlier this year during investigations into financial wrongdoing at the company. He was later released, but two of Sibur's top executives have been charged with abuse of authority.
The two representatives of outside interests on the company's board were reappointed. Burkhard Bergmann, chief executive of Germany's Ruhrgas, and Boris Fyodorov of the United Financial Group brokerage held off a challenge from U.S. shareholder rights activist Bill Browder.
Meanwhile, board member Yuri Komarov said Gazing export revenues of $11.5 billion to $12 billion.
Back to the Top Next Article
- Back to the Top -