Transneft has lost its head
The conflict between the government and the state-owned Transneft company, one of Russia's largest natural monopolies, has taken an unexpected turn. On Monday evening, the head of the Ministry of Fuel and Energy, Viktor Kalyuzhny, held an extraordinary meeting of Transneft shareholders, at which, on behalf of the shareholders, he voted for the resignation of the company's president, Dmitry Savelyev. Yesterday Savelyev announced that he does not intend to leave his post.

Transneft owns a system of trunk pipelines with a total length of 47 thousand km, through which the vast majority of Russian oil is transported (last year, Russian oil companies pumped 97% of all the raw materials they produced through Transneft). Last year, the company's revenue was about $450 million.

As Kommersant already wrote yesterday, Viktor Kalyuzhny and his boss Nikolai Aksenenko did not work well with Dmitry Savelyev. The head of Transneft did not want to solve the government's problems at the expense of the company's finances (in particular, Nikolai Aksenenko suggested that Transneft issue interest-free ruble loans to certain regions). But it still didn’t work out to replace Savelyev at Transneft with someone more manageable. Only the Prime Minister has the right to make important decisions regarding Transneft, and neither Sergei Stepashin nor Vladimir Putin had any special complaints against Savelyev.
An opportunity came at the end of last week. Vladimir Putin went to New Zealand, leaving Nikolai Aksenenko as acting Prime Minister. The interim immediately instructed the Ministry of State Property to hold an extraordinary meeting of the company’s shareholders on Monday, September 13 (the agenda is the early termination of Dmitry Savelyev’s powers) and “to issue a power of attorney to represent the interests of the Russian Federation” at this meeting to the Minister of Fuel and Energy Viktor Kalyuzhny. The outcome of the event was not difficult to predict, since 100% of the voting shares of Transneft belong to the state. Having received them at his disposal, Kalyuzhny could single-handedly decide the fate of Dmitry Savelyev.
True, Savelyev himself points out that the decision to hold an extraordinary meeting and its agenda can only be made by the company’s board of directors, and not by Nikolai Aksenenko. In addition, the Transneft charter states: a meeting of shareholders can take place no earlier than 45 days after the decision to hold it is made. So it was impossible to hold the meeting before October 28th.
Nevertheless, the day before yesterday, Viktor Kalyuzhny held a meeting of Transneft shareholders, at which they (that is, Kalyuzhny himself alone) decided to resign Savelyev and appoint LUKOIL Vice President Semyon Vainshtok to the post of President of Transneft.
“The decision to hold a meeting should have been made by the board of directors. This means that the board meeting could not have happened,” Sergei Chizhov, chairman of the board of directors of Transneft, told Kommersant. “On the other hand, I did not hold this meeting. This means it could not have happened.” “I don’t know how to resolve this paradox - perhaps Kalyuzhny knows, since he managed to resolve it.” At an urgently convened press conference yesterday, Dmitry Savelyev also added that Viktor Kalyuzhny at this meeting was both the chairman and the representative of the shareholders. “This is illegal,” said Savelyev. “According to the law, the chairman of the board of directors must lead the meeting.” The retired president of Transneft assured journalists that he would continue to be present at the workplace and perform his duties, and also admitted that he would regain his leadership position through the court.
There is a classic “dual power” in the company - a situation that dozens of Russian enterprises have faced. True, dual power has never been established in such a powerful state structure as Transneft. And never before has the first deputy prime minister of the government, together with the head of the industry ministry, caused a quarrel between competing heads of a company. The press secretary of the head of the Ministry of Fuel and Energy, Oleg Smirnov, explained what happened as follows: “The minister is simply carrying out the instructions of the government.” And then he began to develop an obscure thought: Transneft, they say, is a completely state structure, therefore, decisions made in the interests of the state can be made “within the framework of various procedures.”
However, Savelyev and his allies argue that not all government representatives share this point of view. According to Sergei Chizhov, Vladimir Putin, who returned to Russia, “was informed of what happened at Transneft, and received this information with extreme surprise.” Dmitry Savelyev expects that he will be able to meet with Putin on Thursday. It is possible that on this day the conflict will finally be resolved. At least, in the corridors of the White House there have long been rumors about the imminent resignation of Aksenenko and Kalyuzhny.
NIKOLAY J-POLUEKTOV

Newspaper "Kommersant" No. 167 dated September 15, 1999, p. 7