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The Russian government has nominated former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. a close friend of President Vladimir Putin. to join the board of Rosneft. the energy giant under Western sanctions.
Schroeder was among seven nominees in a decree signed by Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev published on the Russian government`s website late Friday. The names will go to a shareholders` vote in late September in a move to increase Rosneft`s board from nine to 11.
Schroeder was nominated as a non-executive director of Rosneft. a company born out of Yukos. a state entity that later came under the control of government opponent Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
Rosneft has been dogged by a string of legal claims from New York to Paris and Amsterdam since snaffling up Yukos after it was dismantled following Khodorkovsky`s high-profile arrest in 2003 and jailing.
Friday`s decree also named Rosneft director general Igor Sechin. a close ally of Putin. Kremlin official Andrei Belousov and Energy Minister Alexander Novak as the state`s representatives on the board.
Rosneft. Russia`s biggest oil producer. is 50 percent state-owned.
Schroeder. a Social Democrat who was German chancellor from 1998 to 2005. celebrated his 70th birthday in a palace in St Petersburg during the crisis over Ukraine. He has publicly opposed sanctions placed on Rosneft because of Russia`s interference in Ukraine.
While chancellor. Scroeder championed a Nord Stream pipeline agreement with Russia. which was signed during his last days in office.
Having since built a business career in Russia he heads up a shareholders` committee at Nord Stream. which supplies gas to Germany via the Baltic Sea.
