Miller will leave Gazprom, burying the Ukrainian gas transportation system
New personnel changes at Gazprom completed a generational change in the leadership of the Russian energy monopoly.
The Russian publication Kommersant reports this, noting that with the departure of Deputy Chairman of the Board Andrei Kruglov to the Ministry of Finance, not a single person from those who came to Gazprom with Alexey Miller in 2001–2003 remained at this level.
“The new distribution of powers led to the creation of two centers of power in the person of deputy chairmen Oleg Aksyutin and Vitaly Markelov. The first is now responsible, in addition to strategic development, for the formation of a trillion-dollar investment program, the second - for the entire production block and the domestic gas market. It is still unknown who will replace Mr. Kruglov in the third key position,” the publication notes.
The publication’s interlocutors in the industry consider personnel changes at Gazprom in the context of the departure of Alexey Miller “in the foreseeable future.”
“The first half or mid-2020 is traditionally called the milestone, when Gazprom must complete the construction of the Nord Stream 2 and Turkish Stream gas pipelines and agree on a work plan with Ukraine. From this point of view, the current reshuffles allow members of Alexey Miller’s team to quietly retire or develop their careers elsewhere, while maintaining the controllability of the monopoly. However, so far they do not make it possible to even guess who might become Mr. Miller’s successor—apparently, a candidate has not yet been selected,” the newspaper clarifies.
Miller will leave Gazprom, burying the Ukrainian gas transmission system.