Mikhail Volkov will become the head of Russian Post

Mikhail Volkov will become the new head of Russian Post instead of Maxim Akimov. His candidacy, according to media reports, has already been approved by the government.

The appointment of Volkov as the general director of the postal operator instead of Maxim Akimov was reported by RBC, citing a source close to the company and an unnamed federal official. The information was confirmed by a Kommersant source in the government. The corresponding directive was recently signed by Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Grigorenko, who oversees the work of the Russian Post.

According to RBC, Akimov decided to leave for personal reasons because of "the desire to have more free time than CEOs of state-owned companies." The Russian Post shareholder received the notification a few months ago, and since then there have been discussions on a possible successor.

A Bell source close to Akimov confirms that he himself resigned for personal reasons a few months ago, but for a long time they were looking for another candidate to replace him.

• The fact that the head of the Russian Post may change was told by Kommersant sources in mid-October. The reason for this, according to the newspaper, was, among other things, the poor financial performance of the company.
• In 2021, the company's IFRS revenue grew by 8% to RUB 228.1 billion, while EBITDA increased by almost 44% to RUB 20 billion. At the same time, net profit halved to 1.5 billion rubles, but the company attributed this to the effect of exchange rate differences (due to fluctuations in the ruble exchange rate in 2020, exchange rate differences turned out to be greater than in 2021, when the ruble was relatively stable, this became the main factor , which affected the dynamics of net profit year-on-year). There will be no profit in 2022, given the current situation, says a source close to The Bell, but the company has a plan to return to plus.
• Among the contenders for the post of Kommersant's sources is "first of all" the former top manager of VTB and the Russian Post itself, Mikhail Volkov (now heads the National Lottery).
• Maxim Akimov was appointed CEO of Russian Post in early 2020, replacing Nikolay Podguzov. Previously, since 2018, in the rank of Deputy Prime Minister, he oversaw the digital economy, communications and transport. Among the main achievements of Akimov as the head of a state-owned company, a source close to her calls that he managed to attract all the major marketplaces (Wildberries, Ozon and others) and large Western customers, including Inditex and Ikea, who left Russia after the start of the war.