The founder of RussNeft, who owns 49% of its shares, Gutseriev, has been nominated to the board of directors of Bashneft, a company representative said. Bashneft shareholders are to elect a new board on June 29. Its size is proposed to be reduced from 13 to 10 people; the list includes exactly 10 candidates - a company representative listed them to Vedomosti. It does not include Yakobashvili, who has been an independent director of Bashneft since last summer. For Yakobashvili, such a reshuffle was not a surprise: "The decision was made due to the fact that I was nominated to the board of directors of Sistema," the businessman told Vedomosti.

Former AFK President Leonid Melamed will also leave the Bashneft board. He will be replaced by the current head of Sistema, Mikhail Shamolin, says a source close to the oil company, and Melamed will continue to head the board of directors of RussNeft. Another newcomer will be the son of the main owner of AFK Vladimir Yevtushenkov, Felix. Since March, he has held the position of first vice president, head of the Basic Assets business unit (the fuel and energy complex is part of it) in Sistema.

Gutseriev's nomination is not connected with a possible merger of RussNeft and Bashneft, two sources close to Sistema assure. Earlier, top managers of AFK, which owns control in Bashneft and 49% of RussNeft, spoke about a possible merger of the companies. But while RussNeft has a high debt, there are no such plans, Yevtushenkov said in March.

Gutseriev's nomination is Yevtushenkov's initiative, one of Vedomosti's sources knows: he believed that the businessman's experience would be useful to the company. Representatives of Sistema and Bashneft declined to comment.

Castling of the "System"

Another appointment at Sistema took place last week, its representative said: former Bashneft president Viktor Khoroshavtsev was appointed vice president of AFK – deputy head of the Basic Assets business unit. Khoroshavtsev will oversee the fuel and energy complex, the corporation representative added. The manager left his position at Bashneft in early April, and Alexander Korsik, who previously headed the fuel and energy complex business unit at Sistema, was appointed in his place.

Yevtushenkov shuffles personnel