Yesterday, the Oil Information Agency released a statement from the Sibneft company

Yesterday, the Oil Information Agency issued a statement from the Sibneft company that businessman Boris Berezovsky is not a shareholder and does not participate in the distribution of the company's funds. That is, Sibneft refuted the statements of Mr. Berezovsky himself. Behind these mutually exclusive statements lies either a struggle between shareholders for the company's income, or an attempt by Governor Roman Abramovich to distance himself from Boris Berezovsky.
Yesterday, Sibneft press secretary Alexey Firsov told the agency (and then a Kommersant correspondent): “The famous entrepreneur’s statements to a number of media outlets that he has some stake in the company do not correspond to reality. Mr. Berezovsky is not the owner and does not control any block of shares in Sibneft, either directly or indirectly, he has no right to claim either shares of the company or participation in the distribution of funds." Mr. Firsov ruled out the possibility that Mr. Berezovsky’s representative was involved in the business - no one in the company manages shares on his behalf. And in a conversation with a Kommersant correspondent, he said that Mr. Berezovsky “in principle does not receive any money from the company.” In essence, this is the company’s response to Kommersant’s publication “Sibneft is being spilled” dated June 27. Let us recall that in it Mr. Berezovsky, answering a question from a Kommersant correspondent, said that he still owns half of the shares of Sibneft, they were given to the management of Roman Abramovich’s team. Yesterday, in a conversation with a Kommersant correspondent, Mr. Berezovsky said that he was not going to comment on Sibneft's statements, and confirmed that the share capital in the company was distributed exactly as he said earlier.
Thus, entrepreneur Berezovsky is a co-owner of his last significant asset (remaining after leaving Aeroflot and ORT) only in his own words. It is not possible to find out the structure of Sibneft shareholders from open sources. According to the Federal Securities Commission, its securities are distributed among five nominal holders - large banking institutions. Most likely, even they do not have the names of the true owners - the shares are scattered in small blocks among offshore companies, and the objects of purchase and sale are these offshore companies. This is common practice in Russian business. Analysts at oil companies, whom Kommersant contacted for comments, were unable to help. As one of them said, “We ourselves are confused.”
However, analysts (who, however, wished to remain anonymous) have two versions of the appearance of such contradictory information.
The first - a group of shareholders who actually manage the company (backed by the Governor of Chukotka Roman Abramovich) took Mr. Berezovsky out of business by buying out his stake. The likelihood of such a transaction was previously denied by Mr. Berezovsky himself; according to him, the shares can only be sold with his consent. However, if it was carried out, the statements that the shares belong to him are part of his own PR campaign. The sale of the company that owns the shares was to be carried out at the place of their registration. Perhaps Mr. Berezovsky's lawyers are already challenging these transactions in local courts.
The second version is that Sibneft’s statements are aimed at maintaining the political weight of Roman Abramovich. The governor, who, according to some analysts, owns up to 62% of Sibneft, is considered the most loyal oligarch to the Kremlin. However, it somehow does not fit with loyalty that his company, in fact, finances the creation by Mr. Berezovsky of structures opposition to the Kremlin. Perhaps it was precisely for the sake of confirming the “equidistance” that Mr. Abramovich’s team transferred shares from Runicom’s accounts to other companies. Perhaps Mr. Berezovsky did not even lose informal control over them, and even received $541 million spent on this deal. But his statements regarding property rights in this case can only be explained by the presence of a serious conflict between the company's shareholders.
ALEXEY KHARNAS

Newspaper "Kommersant" No. 112 dated June 29, 2001, p. 1

Themes:

Activities of Roman Abramovich

Sibneft got rid of its shareholder