FRANÇOIS FILLON JOINS RUSSIAN PETROCHEMICAL GROUP SIBUR
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Former French Prime Minister François Fillon has joined the board of directors of Sibur, Russia’s largest petrochemical group, the company said.
The former right and center candidate for the 2017 presidential election has been appointed as an independent director.
Sibur, which is unlisted but has long been considering an IPO, is the leading petrochemical group in Eastern Europe.
Its main shareholders are Leonid Mikhelson, who heads Novatek, Russia’s leading producer of liquefied natural gas, and businessman Gennady Timtchenko, close to Vladimir Putin.
The Kremlin has already said in the past that François Fillon, Prime Minister of Nicolas Sarkozy from 2007 to 2012, maintained “rather good relations” with the Russian president.
Large groups in Russia frequently employ former senior European leaders to benefit from their networks and influence.
Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder is the chairman of the shareholders’ committee of the gas pipeline company Nord Stream.
Former Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl was appointed this year to the board of directors of oil giant Rosneft.
François Fillon was tried on appeal last month in France over the fictitious employment case for the benefit of his wife Penelope. The general prosecutor’s office requested five years of imprisonment, including one firm, against the former Prime Minister, as well as a fine of 375,000 euros and ten years of ineligibility.
The Paris Court of Appeal reserved its judgment on May 9, 2022, after the presidential election.
(Report Vladimir Soldatkin; French version Jean-Stéphane Brosse, edited by Blandine Hénault)