The board of directors at Rostelecom has elected Vadim Semyonov, chief executive of the state telecom group Svyazinvest and university friend of Dmitry Medvedev, as its chairman.
Semyonov was unexpectedly included in the vote by state representatives on the board. Anatoly Milyukov, executive vice president of Gazprombank, Rostelecom's largest minority shareholder, had been tipped to chair the board, Interfax reported.
Svyazinvest is due to merge with Rostelecom by October 1 and will cease to exist.
The Rostelecom board includes Semyonov; Milyukov; former chairman Ivan Rodionov; CEO Sergei Kalugin; Yury Kudimov, CEO of VEB Capital; Sergei Kulikov, head of the state Rostec corporation CEO's administration; head of VTB24 Mikhail Zadornov; Otrkitie Financial Corporation CEO Ruben Aganbegian; UniCredit Bank chief Mikhail Alexeyev; Anton Zlatopolsky, head of the Rossia TV channel; and Alexander Pchelintsev, CEO of Gazprombank Asset Management.