MOSCOW, Feb. 13 — RIA Novosti. National Reserve Bank (NRB), owned by businessman Alexander Lebedev and holding about a 15% stake in Aeroflot, has nominated three people to the board of directors of Russia’s largest airline, including blogger Alexei Navalny, Lebedev’s official spokesperson told the Prime agency. http://www.ria.ru/company/20120213/564879692.html
Let me point out that I have been nominated to Aeroflot’s board of directors, not actually become a member of it, as many people seem to think for some reason. For now, this means only one thing: my name will appear on the ballot. NRB’s stake, although quite substantial, is not enough to guarantee the election of two independent directors. That is how our legislation is structured. At present, Aeroflot’s board has one genuinely independent director — Sergei Aleksashenko saleksashenko, who has been working there very effectively for the past two years. Naturally, under these circumstances, Aleksashenko’s re-election is the priority and fully aligns with shareholders’ interests. Aeroflot, like any other Russian public company, needs a larger number of genuinely independent directors. How many there will be after the vote (to be held in May) depends on a) how the state-owned stake votes b) how minority shareholders vote (investment funds) The position of NRB and alex_lebedev, who nominated me, can be fully clarified by looking through this collection of materials. My views on the direction in which corporate governance in our companies should be improved (including Aeroflot) can be found in this article from April 27, 2010, written for Toni Samsonova and Sergei Guriev’s program “The Day After Tomorrow” on Echo of Moscow (a Russian radio station).