ITAR-TASS

After the head of Gazprom, three of Vyakhirev's closest associates came to see Putin: his deputy Vyacheslav Sheremet, the president of Stroytransgaz Arngolt Bekker and the chairman of the board of Gazprombank Viktor Tarasov. All of them were members of the board of directors of Gazprom. Putin announced his decision and asked whether who had questions. There were no questions. After that, the former official says, at 12:30 in the Security Council reception room in the Kremlin, Putin met with all members of the Gazprom board of directors and announced to them that Vyakhirev had to leave and that his place would be taken by the 39-year-old deputy minister energy workers Alexey Miller.

Gazprom

Oil and gas holding. The main shareholder is the state (50.002%). Capitalization (MICEX) – 3.4 trillion rubles. Financial indicators (nine months of 2008, IFRS): revenue – 2.6 trillion rubles, net profit – 705.4 billion rubles. Gas production (2008, data from the Central Dispatch Office of the Fuel and Energy Complex) – 550.6 billion cubic meters.

Putin's Victory

Early in the morning of May 30, 2001, 64-year-old gas worker Rem Vyakhirev learned that he had only a few hours left to lead Gazprom from President Vladimir Putin in his Kremlin office. After thanking Vyakhirev for his work, the president announced that the head of Gazprom", which expired the following day, May 31, will not be extended. It was a revolutionary decision. Before heading the monopoly in March 1993, Vyakhirev worked in the gas industry for 25 years, the last six of which were as Viktor Chernomyrdin's deputy at the state concern " Gazprom".

Vyakhirev, with the support of Prime Minister Chernomyrdin, ruled Gazprom autocratically, without taking into account almost anyone except the president. Until May 1997, Vyakhirev had a trust agreement with the state for the trust management of the state-owned stake (40% of shares) in Gazprom.

“Nobody doubted Rem Vyakhirev’s loyalty [to President Vladimir Putin], even his support for Primakov and Luzhkov was forgiven,” says a former high-ranking Kremlin official. “But Putin and his entourage had a strong opinion that he was not a very effective and conservative manager, and "The company needs new blood."

It was important to the President that Vyakhirev's resignation be accepted unanimously. For this purpose, the then Minister of Property Relations, Farit Gazizullin, was even urgently called back from vacation. At 15:00, a meeting of the board of directors began in the Gazprom office, at which Dmitry Medvedev introduced Miller to everyone. He was very nervous and was mostly silent. "There were no discussions," says one of those present. Medvedev tactfully gave up the position of chairman of the board of directors to Vyakhirev (though only for a year).

This was the president’s first significant victory. At the head of the country’s largest company, which has serious foreign policy influence, stood a man who was absolutely under his control and loyal to him personally. Miller’s former and current subordinates like to recall how he once half-jokingly said: “If tomorrow the president [Putin] If he orders me to become the director of the Gazprom canteen, I will take this position without discussion.”

The resignation of Vyakhirev's team was planned long before May 30. He was given to understand that it was time to prepare for departure as soon as Putin became prime minister in August 1999, recalls one of Vyakhirev's close associates: they gradually began to cut off the oxygen supply, tax inspectors began to visit Gazprom frequently, and prosecutor's office. Since the end of 1999, Vyakhirev has publicly complained that he is tired and wants to retire. At one point, members of the Gazprom board of directors were even given documents on the early termination of Vyakhirev's employment contract, but then the papers were taken back and they were ordered to remain silent, says one of those present at that board.

Miller's Guard

Despite Putin's colossal support, at first few at Gazprom believed that Miller would last even a year. "He clearly didn't feel like the boss back then," recalls one of Gazprom's managers. "He tried not to catch anyone's eye. He came early in the morning, and often left Gazprom after midnight. He hardly left his office on the fifth floor." "It quickly became clear that Miller was not the decision-maker at Gazprom," a former Member of the Board, Head of the Property Department Alexander Kazakov.

Miller coordinated even the most trivial issues, not to mention personnel appointments, directly with Putin, a former Kremlin official confirms. And former Deputy Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee for Security Sergei Lukash admits that appointments to all key positions in the company were coordinated "directly with the country's leadership ".

Already in early September 2001, Miller pushed aside Rem Vyakhirev's loyal associates: Alexander Pushkin, who oversaw the gas business in the CIS and the Baltics, and the quartermaster Nikolai Guslisty. And Vyakhirev's "right hand" - Vyacheslav Sheremet - was deprived of the right to sign financial documents. "But also None of the key managers were allowed to resign, they were held hostage so that they would brief the new appointees on the situation and explain the technology of work, - said one of the former top managers of Gazprom. - Many of them asked to leave themselves, but they were not allowed to go." The new The appointees were mostly fellow countrymen and acquaintances of Miller. Elena Vasilyeva, who worked under him at the St. Petersburg Sea Port, became Gazprom's chief accountant. Another former subordinate of Miller at the port, Kirill Seleznev, initially received a modest position as his assistant, but less than two years later became the CEO of Mezhregiongaz, which oversees all gas sales on the Russian market. The Gazprom board of directors was headed by Miller's colleague from the Baltic Pipeline System. Mikhail Sereda. After Kazakov's departure, the property department was headed by another St. Petersburg acquaintance of Miller's, Alexander Krasnenkov, manager of the St. Petersburg hotel "Astoria". True, he left Gazprom after less than a year because of a scandal with inexplicably large expenses on advertising and sponsorship, but He still serves on the boards of directors of Gazprombank, Stroytransgaz and Northgaz.

The newcomers were not too ceremonious with the Gazprom veterans. Kazakov, arriving at work in the morning, found an unfamiliar lady in his office. It was Vasilyeva. "She liked my office and ordered my things to be taken out. What could I do? I couldn't throw her out," he recalled. One of the former Gazprom executives told about the dismissal of Viktor Tarasov from Gazprombank: he was urgently summoned to Miller, where he was met in the reception room by an adviser to the head of Gazprom and handed him a phone so that Tarasov could immediately convene a board meeting to approve his resignation . Tarasov said that he needed to get to the bank for documents, but he was not even allowed to use his car - the chairman of the board of Gazprombank left in the back seat of another car with two guards on each side. And in the car following him was Yuri Lvov, who was supposed to replace Tarasov.

"Gazprom has always been a caste structure, and the new team clearly divided people into insiders and outsiders," former board member Alexander Semenyaka said earlier. "I understood that I would have to leave and give up my position to a person from Miller's circle." Semenyaka left " Gazprom" in April 2002, his position was taken by Miller's St. Petersburg acquaintance, 32-year-old Andrei Kruglov. And in just two years he rose to the position of financial director of Gazprom.

The change of middle managers was no less rapid. As Semenyaka recalls, someone's magnetic entry card suddenly stopped working, someone was urgently called back from vacation to be told: "You're fired." "There was no time to stand on ceremony," the manager defends Miller. "Gazprom". - It was necessary to quickly place trusted people in key positions so that they could take control of Gazprom's main financial flows and return the assets that Vyakhirev's team had taken away."

Friends and relatives

Former Gazprom employees often recall Vyakhirev’s favorite saying: “First steal for Gazprom, and then for yourself.” “He did not consider it theft to involve relatives in Gazprom-related business,” recalls one of his associates. “That is why among the founders of companies, working under the wing of Gazprom, there were many relatives and friends of Rem Vyakhirev and his entourage. They sincerely believed that they had earned these companies honestly, and registered shares in the names of their children, wives, brothers and sisters. Vyakhirev's brother Viktor headed Gazprom's drilling company "Burgaz", son Yuri - "Gazexport", major shareholders of the main contractor of "Gazprom" - "Stroytransgaz" (see inset) were Vyakhirev's daughter Tatyana and the sons of Viktor Chernomyrdin. The shares of regional gas companies and enterprises collected by Mezhregiongaz for debts were transferred to Regiongazholding, 80% of which belonged to firms close to the management of Mezhregiongaz, as well as to Viktor Chernomyrdin’s son Vitaly.

The gas trader Itera (see inset), whose business flourished under Vyakhirev, was always suspected of having ties to Gazprom's top brass. But a special study by PricewaterhouseCoopers (this company was also Gazprom's auditor) did not reveal any formal ties. According to some top- managers of Gazprom and Itera, the Vyakhirevites had a verbal agreement with Itera President Igor Makarov that they would receive Itera shares when they left Gazprom. Makarov himself always denied the existence of such an agreement. However, having left Gazprom Sheremet initially “landed” in Itera, becoming a freelance adviser to its president.

In the fall of 2001, Vladimir Putin publicly pointed out to Miller the strange things happening in his company. During a visit to the Zapolyarnoye deposit on November 20, 2001, the president presented Vyakhirev with the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, fourth degree, and after that he began talking about the fact that Gazprom sells gas to its Western counterparties at several times the price on foreign markets. At that time, Gazexport (now Gazprom Export) was still headed by Vyakhirev's son Yuri. "Why are we selling it so cheaply?" the president asked, looking on Miller. “Where is the difference? Where is the money? No need to wave a saber, but it is necessary to sort it out.” Soon Gazprom auditors took on Gazexport. “We were lucky, they sent a harmless one,” recalled one of the former employees of this company, “he sat quietly, studied the documents. True, he liked to drink a lot and periodically fell asleep over the inspections." Yuri Vyakhirev did not wait for the results of this investigation and wrote a letter of resignation of his own free will. “I simply had nothing more to do there,” explains Vyakhirev Jr.

Gave it up voluntarily

But that was not all. There, in Novy Urengoy, Putin reminded Gazprom executives of another unresolved problem, throwing out the phrase in his critical speech: “Otherwise, you’ll open your mouth, and you won’t have not only Sibur.” Indeed, with the consent of the former Gazprom managers, the monopoly almost lost control over a major asset. Sibur was the favorite project of Sheremet and Pushkin. Their support and financing from Gazprom allowed Sibur president Yakov Goldovsky to buy up petrochemical companies for his own companies in three years companies involved in processing associated gas and turn the Sibur Group into the country's largest petrochemical holding. In 2000, Gazprom bought 51% of Sibur's shares for $80 million, but soon Yakov Goldovsky and his partners decided to consolidate all of the group's enterprises under participation of Gazprom and gain control of the superholding.

According to the former vice president of legal affairs at Sibur, Evgeny Koschits, on May 7, 2001, Sibur shareholders approved two issues at once for a total of 70 billion rubles (ordinary shares - for 52.5 billion rubles and convertible preferred shares - by 17.5 billion rubles). There was a verbal agreement with Gazprom management that the monopoly would buy only half of the ordinary shares, and after the placement of preferred shares, its share in the capital would be reduced to 38% (50.6% of the votes). The issue could be paid for in cash or shares of 17 enterprises of the Sibur group, which were owned by Goldovsky and his partners. The shares of the enterprises were valued at 23.7 billion rubles, and Gazprom had to pay about $700 million to maintain its share, and the monopoly would still lose control through three years, when the preferred shares would be converted into common shares. A month before Vyakhirev’s resignation, the Gazprom Board of Directors managed to approve participation in the issue under these conditions.

The new leaders of the monopoly could not decide for a long time whether to support this project, and the upcoming loss of control in Sibur was an unpleasant discovery for Miller. In November 2001, he demanded that Sibur suspend all actions to place shares. But still In October, Goldovsky's GNK firm bought 5% of the shares in the new issue, thereby reducing Gazprom's share to approximately 30%. Koshchits says that there was no goal to dilute Gazprom's stake; the holding simply needed money. Gazprom has said nothing about the reduction The shares were only revealed on December 29 from an extract from the Sibur register for the upcoming shareholders' meeting. The monopoly immediately filed a complaint with the Prosecutor General's Office, and on January 8, Goldovsky, Koschits, and Sibur's Chairman of the Board of Directors Vyacheslav Sheremet were arrested.

On that day, the president of Sibur had a meeting scheduled with Miller, Lukash recalls. Goldovsky arrived at Gazprom to the entrance where elevators were located only for management. His security remained below; armed people were not allowed into the management elevator. Goldovsky went up fifth floor, but he never made it to Miller’s office – he was arrested in the reception area. Goldovsky was not prepared for this turn of events. “I thought that in the end we would agree on who would buy out whom in Sibur,” he later said in an interview with "Vedomosti." - Although the day before I was warned that arrest was possible. But what was the alternative? Flee the country?"

Three days later, Sheremet was released on bail – Rem Vyakhirev stood up for him. And Goldovsky and Koshchits were charged with abuse of power, and they spent several months under arrest. In February, Goldovsky agreed to transfer all shares of GNK to Sibur and its subsidiaries ", where Gazprom would say, and after completing the transactions in August, he was released, receiving a suspended sentence. Now he lives in Vienna and assures that he did not try to deceive anyone, it is just that with the arrival of the new management of Gazprom, the concept for Sibur has also changed "I suggested to Miller: either you buy out my share in Sibur, or I'll buy out yours, or we'll sell everything, split the profits, and be done with this petrochemical business," Goldovsky recalled. "But Gazprom didn't make any decisions."

In safe hands

The assets recaptured from the Vyakhirevites did not remain in Gazprom for long. The monopoly has long lost control over Sibur and Stroytransgaz, the company's employees admit. Sibur Holding is 70% controlled by Gazprombank, as is 19.99% of Stroytransgaz shares. Among There are no longer any relatives of Vyakhirev and Chernomyrdin among the co-owners of Stroytransgaz, but there are offshore companies friendly to the major trader and Putin acquaintance Gennady Timchenko, according to two entrepreneurs close to him (Timchenko's representatives were unavailable to journalists, and Stroytransgaz is not commenting on this. - Vedomosti "). Gas traders, where, in Putin's opinion, the main margin from the sale of gas for export was deposited, also exist, only some of them have changed beneficiaries. And Gunvor, founded by Timchenko, sells Gazprom Neft oil for export, Timchenko's partner Torbjorn Tornqvist said earlier. Gazprombank itself, under Miller, has ceased to be a "daughter" of the monopoly, and 50% plus 1 share of the bank now belong to Gazfond and the company that manages it, Lider " It is controlled by the St. Petersburg bank "Rossiya", founded by another acquaintance of Putin, Yuri Kovalchuk. Gazprom also sold the insurance company "Sogaz" to this bank, while remaining its largest client.

Chronicles 2001–2009: Step on the gas!