RUSSIA - Profile - Rem Vyakhirev

An old friend and protege of interim PM Chernomyrdin, Vyakhirev is the president of Gazprom and chairman of its management board, or committee. He was given this post by Chernomyrdin in late 1992, when the latter became prime minister. His first name, Rem, is an acronym for revolution, Engels

Vyakhirev, now aged 64, has become a very influential figure in the oil industry and the gas sector. Previously he was a high executive in the oil industry, which he left because he was not too happy with the advent of foreign companies as partners in this sector. He was once Chernomyrdin's boss at an oil refinery in Siberia.

While the oil industry is fractured into more than a dozen holding companies and a number of JVs, Vyakhirev has managed to keep Gazprom intact as a state monopoly. In a February 1996 study by a local business magazine, Vyakhirev was listed first among the most powerful businessmen, or oligarchs, in Russia. Vyakhirev is a member of the Economic Liaison Council, grouping the oligarchs or "robber barons", formed in June 1998 to advise the government on economic policies.

A Gazprom delegation will make a presentation at the 12th Annual APS Conference to be held in Beirut on Oct. 12-13, 1998. (For details, please view the APS website at: www.aps-energygroup.com).

During Kiriyenko's premiership from March 23 to Aug. 23, 1998, Vyakhirev fought battles with the government over tax payments, attempts to break the Gazprom monopoly and other reform efforts. He had battles with the reformists in the previous government, which was under Chernomyrdin but from March 1997 was overshadowed by two 1st deputy MPs: Anatoly Chubais and Boris Nemtsov.

Under a trust agreement signed by the two sides in December 1997, Vyakhirev lost full control over Gazprom and his independence within the company. The agreement, signed on the state's side by Kiriyenko in his capacity as energy minister and Nemtsov's replacement as overseer of Gazprom, stipulated that a board of ten state officials overseeing Gazprom were to vet Vyakhirev's decisions. Before that, he used to have more control over 35% out of the state's 40.87% holding in the company, under a trust agreement signed in 1994.

Vyakhirev's power struggle was mainly with Kiriyenko, who in November 1997 was made energy minister and chairman of the board overseeing Gazprom on behalf of the government, and with Nemtsov who until Dec. 21, 1997 was chairman of that board. Nemtsov and two allies from the government were ousted from the overseers' board hours earlier - after intervention by then PM Chernomyrdin and the oligarchs' chief spokesman, Boris Berezovsky. The overseers' board was