Igor Sechin

Career

Igor Sechin graduated from Leningrad State University in 1984 as a linguist, fluent in Portuguese and French. In the 1980s, Sechin worked in Mozambique. He was officially a Soviet interpreter. From 1991 to 1996, he worked at St. Petersburg mayor's office, and became a chief of staff of the first deputy mayor, Vladimir Putin in 1994. From 1996 to 1997, Sechin served as a deputy of Vladimir Putin, who worked in the presidential property management department. From 1997 to 1998, Sechin was the chief of the general department of the main control directorate attached to the president, led by Putin. In August 1999, he was appointed head of the secretariat of the prime minister of Russia, Putin. From 24 November 1999 until 11 January 2000, Sechin was the first deputy chief of the Russian presidential administration.

Between 31 December 1999 and May 2008 he was deputy chief of Putin's administration. In May 2008, he was appointed by President Dmitry Medvedev as a deputy prime minister in a move considered as a demotion. According to Stratfor, "Sechin acts as boss of Russia’s gigantic state oil company Rosneft and commands the loyalty of the FSB. Thus, he represents the FSB’s hand in Russia’s energy sector."

Since 27 July 2004 Sechin has been the successful and influential chairman of the board of directors of JSC Rosneft, which swallowed up the assets of jailed tycoon Khodorkovsky's Yukos. He has additionally been president of Rosneft since May 2012. Khodorkovsky has accused Igor Sechin of plotting to have him arrested and plundering his oil company: "The second as well as the first case were organised by Igor Sechin. He orchestrated the first case against me out of greed and the second out of cowardice." In 2008 Mr. Sechin allegedly blocked the replacement of the AAR consortium with Gazprom in the TNK-BP joint venture.

In 2008 Igor Sechin was involved with the BP oil company and did private negotiations with BP CEO. In 2008 Hugo Chávez said that the idea for Venezuelan nuclear energy program came from Sechin. Sechin negotiated deals on weapons and nuclear technology deliveries to Venezuela. In July 2009 Sechin negotiated deals with Cuba that brought Russia into deep-water drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.

Sechin also presides over the Board of Directors of the United Shipbuilding Corporation, and helped with negotiations with France over the purchase of four Mistral-class ships. Sechin argued that two ships should be constructed in Russia and two in France, as opposed to the initial offer that only one be constructed in Russia. Piotr Żochowski, of the Polish Center for Eastern Studies, argued that "it cannot be ruled out that Sechin's stance on this issue results from his personal financial involvement in the St Petersburg shipbuilding industry".

On March 20, 2014 the United States government sanctioned Sechin in response to the Russian government's role in the ongoing unrest in Ukraine. The sanctions include a travel ban to the United States, freezing of all assets of Sechin in the United States and a ban on business transactions between American citizens and corporations and Sechin and businesses he owns.

In December 2014, a CNBC article noted that Sechin is "widely believed to be Russia's second-most powerful person" after President Putin.

Personal life

Igor Sechin is married, and has a daughter, Inga. Inga married Dmitry Ustinov, son of former Prosecutor General and current Plenipotentiary Envoy to the Southern Federal District Vladimir Ustinov, in 2003. Inga and Dmitry had a son in 2005.

After the demotion of Vladimir Ustinov in 2006, Sechin reportedly arranged the appointment of Alexander Bastrykin, another ally of his, as Chairman of the Investigative Committee of the Prosecutor General's Office in 2007 in order to retain his influence.