On April, 11 during a meeting of the board of directors he officially resigned from his position as chairman of the board of Rosneft. Furthermore, Mr Sechin announced withdrawal of previously given consent to be nominated as candidate for board of directors chairman to be elected at the annual shareholders meeting, where the results of 2010 financial year will be summarized.

So far there is no information as to whether Mr Sechin would also leave the board of directors of Rosneft’s main shareholder, Rosneftegas. The position of chairman of Rosneft board of directors will be filled by Sergey Shishin, VTB bank first vice-president and former general of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation. Currently board of directors chairman in action is Andrey Nekipelov, an independent member of the board and vice-president of the Russian Academy of Science.

Government officials are to leave boards of directors of 19 state companies within a few months.

These government-owned companies control about 15% of the GDP in Russia. Regardless of the upcoming major changes in the management, state owned companies will still have to follow government line in their decision-making.