New Order for Russian Gas

Most observers, commenting on the results of the recent meeting of shareholders of Russia’s largest monopoly, Gazprom, paid attention primarily to the fact former Premier Viktor Chernomyrdin, to whom this gas company largely owes its current prosperity, gave up the office of chairman of the board of directors to Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chief of the president’s staff. However, a more important event occurred in reality, which the Moscow newspaper Vedomosti has already dubbed the Gazprom coup. The participants in the meeting not only voted down the amendments to Gazprom’s statute, which, if approved, would have allowed Rem Viakhirev to hold the office of the company’s general manager as long as he pleased, but also elected an entirely different board of directors in which the majority, for the first time in many years, belongs to people dependent on the state, not on Gazprom. From now on the state will be in fact controlling the gas monopoly’s board of directors, while Mr. Viakhirev will have to be more docile, otherwise he could wind up fired tomorrow.

Of course, nobody is going to fire Mr. Viakhirev. Moreover, the new Russian leadership finds it very convenient to have this kind of Viakhirev — authoritative, extremely influential in the business world but at the same time tamed and cautious. We can now be sure Gazprom will no longer support Vladimir Gusinsky, the Media-Most owner, so the latter will have either to make a deal with the state or abandon his risky business. We can now be sure Gazprom will rapidly lose its current status of a state within a state and help boost budget revenues if need be. Kyiv should also draw some obvious conclusions from the new situation that has come about in Gazprom. It is no longer necessary to discuss with Mr. Viakhirev the Ukrainian debts for Russian gas. This means those people in the Ukrainian leadership who expected to solve our gas problems by way of sweetheart deals with Gazprom barons might do well to seek a different more interesting job. Now both the Kremlin and Moscow’s White House are the owners of Russian gas. And it is in the offices of Aleksandr Voloshin, Dmitry Medvedev, Farad Gazizulin, German Gref, and Viktor Khristenko, that one must seek the solution of the complicated problem. And as for Viakhirev, he will simply obey any decision the board of directors makes.