Nikolay Tokarev, the mate and colleague of President Vladimir Putin, is likely to take over Russia's state-run oil pipeline operator Transneft.
Photo: Sergey Semyenov
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Transneft Didn’t Leak Out
Nikolay Tokarev, the mate and colleague of President Vladimir Putin, is likely to take over Russia's state-run oil pipeline operator Transneft. Tokarev is the general director of the state-run Zarubezhneft and his candidature has been agreed on by profile ministries and submitted to the cabinet.
Russia’s Economic Development Ministry has submitted to cabinet the draft guidelines for voting on the future president of Transneft, Interfax reported yesterday with reference to a high-ranked source at the ministry. According to sources familiar with the situation, Economic Development Ministry, Industry and Energy Ministry and Federal Property Agency (Rosimushchestvo) gave the go-ahead to Tokarev Saturday and Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov has approved of him already.
The office of Transneft president has been free since September 13, when it was vacated by Semen Vainshtok, who will take over a new Olympic State Corporation. “The plans were that exactly Tokarev would replace him, but the list of contenders widened after the cabinet’s resignation,” said an anonymous source familiar with the situation. The given names ranged from former Economic Development Minister German Gref to Gazprom Vice CEO Valery Golubev and Industry and Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko.
Though not for long, Tokarev had worked in Transneft already. He joined the company in 1999 as the vice president for security and foreign economic relations, but was appointed Zarubezhneft GD already in 2000.
His official CV doesn’t give lots of details and has some blind spots. Unofficially, Tokarev is said to have served in the KGB’s and then FSB’s foreign intelligence. Similar to Vladimir Putin, he had long stayed in East Germany, serving in the same unit with today’s president.
Nowadays, Nikolay Tokarev is likely to head the company that is in charge of delivery of nearly all crude in Russia and of its export. The giant will get even bigger soon, after it finally takes over Transnefteproduct. One of its key projects is construction of an oil pipeline from Eastern Siberia to the Pacific Ocean.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Oct. 09, 2007
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