Illustration copyright AFP Image caption Sechin, who heads Rosneft, is considered Vladimir Putin's closest ally

The board of directors of Rosneft has extended the powers of the president of the Russian state company Igor Sechin for five years. The company reported for the first time how much Sechin would earn as president.

As the state-owned company reported, the salary for the president of Rosneft is set by the board of directors from 15 to 20 million rubles ($290-390 thousand).

Based on these figures, Sechin’s salary per year, excluding bonuses and additional payments, could reach 240 million rubles ($4.7 million).

The amount of the president's annual bonus is set as a percentage of the annual monetary remuneration and amounts to 150%. Thus, taking into account the bonus of 360 million rubles, Igor Sechin can receive up to 600 million rubles per year ($11.8 million).

For other top managers of Rosneft, the amount of official salary is set from the official salary of the president of Rosneft: for the first vice president - from 30 to 50%, for vice presidents - from 20 to 40%, for other top managers - from 10 to 35%. The size of the annual bonus for these top managers is set as a percentage of the annual cash remuneration and amounts to 140%.

Rosneft, which in the past refused to disclose information about Sechin’s income and property, is reporting for the first time the salary of the head of the company.

The state company previously referred to the fact that Rosneft is not “a state company created on the basis of federal law, and therefore is not obliged to report on the income of its managers.

Effective manager

In December 2014, at his annual press conference, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that he did not know the salary of the head of Rosneft, whom he called “a fairly effective manager.”

“I don’t know Sechin’s salary. To be honest, I don’t even count my own salary,” Putin said then.

The issue of Sechin's salary as head of Rosneft even became the subject of a lawsuit last year against Forbes magazine, which named the head of the state-owned company the highest paid top manager in Russia.

In the 2013 Forbes ranking of the highest-paid executives of Russian companies, the magazine named Sechin the most expensive manager, estimating his remuneration at $50 million. Sechin sued Forbes, proving in the first instance that the amount indicated was unreliable and the publication damaged its business reputation.

Due to the court decision, Forbes was forced to make adjustments to the annual publication of the ranking of the highest paid Russian top managers in 2014.

Forbes included the president of Rosneft on the list as an “out of rating” participant. At the same time, the authors of the rating placed Sechin immediately after Andrei Kostin, Chairman of the Board of VTB, who took first place.

Five more years

Sechin's term of office expired in May 2015.

At the end of April, the head of the Federal Property Management Agency, Olga Dergunova, announced that a directive had been submitted to the government to extend Sechin’s powers as head of the state-owned company.

Sechin became head of Rosneft in May 2012, shortly after Vladimir Putin took office as president for the third time.

Prior to this, Sechin oversaw the Russian fuel and energy complex in the government as Deputy Prime Minister and was chairman of the board of directors of Rosneft.

“Interlocutor” tried to figure out for what talents Sechin receives a salary of almost 1 billion a year at Rosneft.

Those living on one salary are better off not reading this in order to save their nerves: Igor Sechin’s bare monthly salary is 15–20 million rubles. Yes, plus an annual bonus of 150% of the annual salary. This already works out to 50 million per month. Yes, plus a bonus for membership in the board of 5%. Plus an allowance for state secrets, plus bonuses (for the implementation of large projects and other beautiful eyes), plus payments for entertainment expenses, corporate bonuses, etc.

And this does not include medical care for all family members, compensation for housing rent, and tuition fees for children under 23 years of age. Even this year, Sechin himself can accrue dividends on his existing company shares in the amount of 110 million. So, he should get up to 700–800 million a year (up to 2 million a day!). After all, Sechin also heads the board of directors of Rosneftegaz, on which the government last week decided to re-approve him.

Comparison with the income of top managers of private foreign companies is inappropriate here. We are talking about a Russian company. And state. Is Igor Sechin really such a great specialist that he’s worth it? Yes, somehow it’s not very noticeable. It is clear that it is not easy for a former philologist to lead an oil company, but then personnel must be selected accordingly. What and where did Sechin pick up for himself? Even when he only headed the board of directors of Rosneft, he appointed the son of the then head of the FSB, Andrei Patrushev, as his assistant. Having become president of the company, he put his own son on the shelf. And he appointed the son of the Russian Ambassador to China as the head of the Rosneft representative office in Asia, who before that, however, already had rich leadership experience - the boy was in charge of a restaurant in Beijing. Not an oil company, but some kind of kindergarten!

But okay, footage. Maybe Sechin has a business sense? Or maybe not. Two years ago, Rosneft bought shares in TNK-BP for more than $44 billion, borrowing almost three-quarters of this amount. Now experts value all of Rosneft, including these shares, at only $41 billion. It is clear that there is a crisis, but not a single major oil company in the world is now in such a deep hole. And now the whole country is paying for these miscalculations, since loans must be paid in dollars, which is dragging down both the ruble and the entire Russian economy as a whole.

Why then is Igor Sechin so valued? Is it just because he was once Putin’s secretary? Another interesting explanation has recently surfaced. As Sobesednik found out, it turns out that people from Ramzan Kadyrov’s entourage for some reason believe that it was Sechin who somehow framed their boss for the Chechen trace in Nemtsov’s murder. From these positions, the ex-official's current post and his fabulous salary at Rosneft look not like a well-deserved sinecure, but like a well-paid exile - stay in your company, guy, get crazy money for your past loyalty, but, for God's sake, Don't meddle in politics anymore.

Sobesednik.ru calculated how much top managers of Russian state-controlled companies earn

Minimum wage in Sechin style

Let’s make a reservation right away: the salary amounts presented in our rating are underestimated. Companies and banks do not disclose how many bonuses were paid to a specific executive. In official reports - only the general meaning.

For example, in 2017, 11 members of the Rosneft board received a remuneration of 3 billion 895 million rubles. On average, each person receives 354 million per year. It is logical to assume that Chairman of the Board Igor Sechin got more. But exactly how much is a secret. Even despite the recent recommendations of the Central Bank to indicate earnings by name.

The game of hide and seek on the part of state managers has been going on for several years. They refuse to disclose information about their property.

When making calculations, Sobesednik relied specifically on average values, less than which the heads of state-owned companies could not earn even theoretically. In practice, their remuneration is two times higher than that of “ordinary” top managers.

And we have not yet taken into account income from owning shares and from bank deposits. So the real income of the heads of companies is many times greater than what we can prove.

At the same time, the considerable yield of managers does not imply their effectiveness. The net profit of the same Rosneft has been falling in recent years, while the salaries of the top of the company have been growing. The other day, Sechin also asked Vladimir Putin for tax benefits. But he didn’t offer to reduce his salary.

One grain at a time

State managers receive money not only from their main place of work. They, as a rule, sit on the management bodies of other companies - both controlled and third-party ones. Thus, the head of Gazprom PJSC Alexey Miller is also the chairman of the board of directors at Gazprombank, SOGAZ, Gazprom Neft, and Gazprom-Media.

Number

9639 euros Saulius Bilis, general director of the natural gas transmission system operator Amber Grid, receives a month in Lithuania.86 times less than his Russian colleague Alexey Miller. But among the heads of state-owned enterprises in the post-Soviet republic, this is the largest income.

According to Sobesednik’s calculations, Miller’s monthly salary is more than 58 million rubles. This is a thousand times more than most Gazprom employees. For example, at Gazprom Dobycha Krasnodar LLC, a 100% subsidiary of Gazprom, they receive an average of 58 thousand rubles. per month. In Gazprom Transgaz Volgograd, where 5 thousand people work, there are 44 thousand each.

Anatoly Chubais is also torn on several fronts. He sits on the board of directors of JSC Rusnano (1 million rubles per annum), is on the board of directors of PJSC Pipe Metallurgical Company (another 11 million) and, most importantly, chairs LLC Management Company Rusnano (1.05 billion rubles per annum). ). In addition, he collaborates with Skolkovo and heads NovaMedica LLC and RusnanoMedInvest LLC. Chubais promised to lead Rusnano until his retirement. His annual income would be enough for 80 thousand Russian pensioners.

ADDENDUM (14.03.2018; 18:30)

A representative of Rusnano called Anatoly Chubais’s income estimate “baseless.” As confirmation, “Interlocutor” was provided with a copy of A. B. Chubais’s declaration, which is not publicly available, but for 2016. According to this document, the head of Rusnano received income in the amount of 325 million 896 thousand rubles during the reporting period, of which 41 million 773 thousand rubles from his main place of work. The 2017 return has not yet been submitted.– this should be done in April.

Quote

We have a lot of money. There are just so many of them. Anatoly Chubais

State bankers

As it turned out, German Gref earns more at Sberbank than Andrei Kostin at VTB. But in fairness, Sber’s revenue is more significant.

A couple of years ago, State Duma deputy Vasily Shvetsov proposed “tying” the earnings of heads of state corporations to the salary of the president. According to his idea, no one should receive more than the head of state. However, this initiative did not find support from the Duma majority, and the author of the bold document himself could not be re-elected to the next convocation of parliament.

So Putin can still ask for a loan from his old friend, the head of Sberbank. They started working together back in 1991 at the St. Petersburg City Hall. Moreover, the state values ​​Gref’s talents higher than the entire Russian hockey team. For winning the Olympics, 100 million “prizes” were allocated to the entire team, and half a billion to Gref alone.

Medvedev is envious

The salary of another top manager close to the president, Rostec CEO Sergei Chemezov, is 400 times higher than the average for the state corporation (44 thousand per month). Chemezov has been friends with Putin since the time they worked together in Germany. Today he is one of the most influential people in the country. Many resignations and appointments of governors are also associated with his name.

In the regions where Rostec operates, the name of Chemezov inspires awe. There is a whole empire under his management: a total of 453 thousand people work in the corporation’s structures.

But the chairman of the board of Inter RAO UES, Boris Kovalchuk, is connected not only with the president (through his father’s dacha in the Ozero cooperative), but also with the prime minister. During his studies at St. Petersburg State University, Dmitry Medvedev was his teacher. Today, Kovalchuk, who is responsible for the electric power industry, earns 21 times more than Medvedev - officially, of course.

The only top manager of state-owned companies who is not afraid to officially declare income is the head of Russian Railways, Oleg Belozerov. He boldly points out that for his work he has an income of more than 14 million rubles. per month. Meanwhile, Russian Railways is looking for a foreman for a salary of 52 thousand rubles. And a loader - for 20 thousand.

For future railway employees, the amounts of income of top managers probably seem fantastic. But if there is one thing that is implausible in Russia, it is the focus of the political establishment on building a just society.

Vadim Levental about Igor Sechin’s salary.

The struggle for senior government officials to disclose the amount of their income was crowned with intermediate success; it was officially announced how much Igor Sechin earns: not counting bonuses, bonuses and benefits, it is “from 15 to 20 million a month.”

This figure amazes the imagination and makes you think. We, of course, already guessed that Igor Ivanovich was not in poverty, but now we can talk about this not as gossip, but as an official fact.

"What we are going to do? We'll be jealous!" - Stalin allegedly said about Rokossovsky, who appeared in society arm in arm with a reprehensibly beautiful companion. One can envy a man who managed to win the heart of a beauty we never even dreamed of, but no envy would be enough to envy Sechin’s salary, the point here is different.

The point is not that, as anyone who receives a salary in Russia knows, our “white” salary is only a part, and often not the most significant, of real income.

It’s not even that with such a salary you can build hospitals, schools, roads, houses, airplanes every month, everything that the people’s imagination is enough for.

It’s not that with such a salary it would be possible to send an extra convoy of humanitarian aid to Novorossiya every month, which is so needed there.

The fact is that this salary is absolutely not human-sized. There is not and cannot be any human labor that would cost that much. There are not and cannot be any human needs that would require such money. It can be assumed that the head of a large enterprise takes on great responsibility and great risks and therefore his work should be valued higher than the work of a mechanic, turner or milkmaid (one can admit, I repeat, although this is a debatable issue) - but even in this case it would be possible allow a difference of several times, and not several tens and hundreds of times.

No merit to society, no intelligence, no talent and no enterprise can be worth that much. (We leave aside the doubt that the head of Rosneft generally needs all these qualities - again, that’s not the point.)

Such a salary cannot exist, and since it exists, then this is exactly what you were thinking about.

And what then are all the efforts of the state to instill patriotism worth? What are parades and St. George ribbons, Skolkovo and nanotechnology, protecting the feelings of believers and the fight against propaganda of you know what?

What is a bank robbery compared to starting a bank?

But maybe the whole point is that Sechin is a bad manager, and if you appoint a fashion blogger in his place, he will reduce his salary? Or is Rosneft itself ineffective, and it needs to be sold to Western investors, and then they will spend people’s money on gardens, schools and roads? Or maybe it’s all about freedom of speech, and if you replace Solovyov with Shenderovich, Mamontov with Latynina, and Leontyev with Ksenia Sobchak, how will Sechin’s salary immediately return beyond the bounds of imagination? Or maybe we should start by repenting for the crimes of the totalitarian era? Introduce lessons on homosexuality in schools? Give away the Kuril Islands to Japan, Vyborg to Finland, Crimea to Turkey? Maybe then, finally, the money flowing into the pocket of the person who manages the national property will be spent on our children, their health and education?

Or, it’s scary to think, maybe the whole point is that you need to check the “fifth column” with the head of Rosneft? Maybe a foreigner is hiding behind the Russian name and patronymic? And it’s worth putting a proven Russian in the chair instead of him - and then he will give up his unaffordable (he can’t spend so much) income in favor of the starving, freezing and deprived of medical care residents of Novorossiya?

In February, state-owned companies traditionally publish reports for the final quarter of the previous year, which contain information on management earnings. At the end of 2016, the total amount of payments to the Gazprom board decreased by 9.4% - for the first time since 2012. Rosneft reduced the salaries of board members by 16%, although due to bonuses the total amount of payments remained virtually unchanged.

What is officially known

Using the example of five state-owned companies from different industries, we can track how payment amounts have changed.

The total annual income consists of wages, bonuses, commissions, remuneration for participation in the work of the management body and other types of remuneration. At Gazprom, the majority of income comes from salaries (1.2 billion rubles in 2016), at Sberbank, Rosneft and Russian Railways - bonuses (2.9 billion rubles, 2 billion rubles and 1.6 billion rubles). respectively). Aeroflot does not disclose details. Moreover, the average annual income of a board member exceeds the average annual income of an ordinary employee by 50–300 times.

The exact amounts of executive earnings are usually not disclosed. In May 2015, Rosneft published the “Standard on payments and compensation to top managers”, for the first time revealing the mechanism for calculating salaries and bonuses to its management. It follows from the document that the salary of Rosneft President Igor Sechin is 15–20 million rubles. per month, that is, up to 240 million rubles. in year. The remaining top managers receive from 10–50% of the president’s salary. In addition, the president is entitled to an annual bonus of 150% of his salary and other payments.

What unofficial data is there?

Since 2012 its ranking of the 25 most expensive top managers published annually by Forbes. The top positions in it are traditionally occupied by the heads of state-owned companies (Gazprom, Rosneft, VTB).

How much do other senior executives earn?

Top managers' salaries quite comparable to the income of some federal officials. The annual income of the richest member of the government - Minister for Open Government Affairs Mikhail Abyzov - in 2015 amounted to 455.6 million rubles. Deputy Prime Minister and Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of the Far Eastern Federal District Yuri Trutnev earned 153.8 million rubles, Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov - 144.7 million rubles.

According to a study by Equilar, the average annual earnings of top managers of the 100 largest US companies at the end of 2015 reached $14.5 million (883 million rubles in terms of the average annual dollar exchange rate in 2015).

The biggest scandals surrounding the earnings of top managers

In 2014, the head of Rosneft Igor Sechin filed a lawsuit against Forbes magazine, which estimated his income in 2012 at $50 million. The Savelovsky Court of Moscow sided with Mr. Sechin, obliging the magazine to refute this information as untrue.

In August 2014, the head of JSC Russian Railways Vladimir Yakunin stated in his blog that he is not obliged to publish information about his income, noting that as the head of a state-owned company, he submits “data on his income to the tax office and the government.” He added that the publication “carries a certain threat” to members of his family. In January 2015, the head of Russian Railways stated that he agreed to obey the relevant government order. Later he reported that his salary was 4 million rubles. per month. His successor Oleg Belozerov officially disclosed his annual income.

In November 2016, the Prosecutor General’s Office stated that the bonus of the head of Russian Post, Dmitry Strashnov, based on the results of 2014 (95.4 million rubles) was accrued illegally and should have amounted to no more than 3.2 million rubles. Materials on the initiation of a case of abuse of power were sent to the RF IC. The Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications spoke in defense of Mr. Strashnov, saying that the reward was justified. According to the press service of Russian Post, from the beginning of 2016 to the present, Dmitry Strashnov’s salary is 307 thousand rubles. per month without extra charge for access to information constituting state. secret (50% of the monthly salary), as well as payment for business trips and vacation pay. No annual bonuses were paid at the end of 2015 and 2016.

In 2016, the annual publication of the Forbes salary ranking of top managers was published without indicating the amount of remuneration for VTB President Andrei Kostin. This was explained by the fact that “the VTB Group, until the publication of the material, did not provide data on the key management employees to whom the total remuneration is distributed.” As the Vedomosti newspaper wrote, journalists suspected the owner of the ACMG group, which publishes the Russian version of the magazine, Alexander Fedotov, of interfering in editorial policy. In January, the magazine’s editor-in-chief Nikolai Uskov called the refusal to publish the salary of the head of VTB “his personal decision.”

How do experts explain the decline in income?

Igor Polyakov, leading expert at the Center for Macroeconomic Analysis and Short-Term Forecasting (CMAP): “This may be due to the desire to maintain a certain competitiveness, because the payroll of top managers hangs a significant burden on the company’s expenses. Second, and this is related to international rather than domestic activity - after a decision is made to reduce production quotas, companies can predict a decrease or stabilization of some revenues. Third, the analysis shows a high level of stratification in terms of wages in companies with state participation. Last year, the State Duma even raised the issue of limiting salaries and severance pay, the so-called “golden parachutes.”

Vladislav Zhukovsky, economist, member of the presidium of the Stolypin Club:“The first and most important thing you need to know about the salaries of top managers of state-owned companies: tales that they are forced to pay record salaries and bonuses, which amount to billions of rubles annually, supposedly so that they do not go to the private sector or foreign companies. This point of view is in some way a manipulation of public opinion. Nobody needs officials who have become state managers abroad - there has not been a single precedent. Secondly, you need to understand that our wages, salaries and bonuses for top managers are not tied to the efficiency of labor productivity in the company. For example, Gazprom’s net profit has fallen significantly, revenue is declining, but board members still receive record amounts. And the formal slight decrease in wages is due to the fact that money in the economy has become very tight and public opinion is pressing, so we decided to put a good face on a bad game, let off steam and defuse the situation.”

Mikhail Zhukov, CEO of HeadHunter: “Top managers are definitely not in danger, because taking into account bonus payments, vacation pay and travel allowances, their income has definitely not fallen. It’s difficult to say what it will be like next year, but at least this year the reduction in wages will not affect their total income. It is quite possible that such actions by company management are a purely demonstrative decision, a reaction to press reports about the income levels of top managers, which clearly irritated the Russian population, which receives much less.”

Olga Dorokhina, Evgeniy Kozichev, Mikhail Malaev, Olga Shkurenko