Everyone here is asking what I think—as a tiny minority shareholder and постоянный critic of "Rosneft"—about the appointment of "journalist" "Mikhail" "Leontyev" as the company’s vice president no less about the appointment of "journalist" "Mikhail" "Leontyev" as vice president (or, according to other reports, as an adviser to the company’s president).
Well, what is there to think about? First, Google has already answered everything for us:
And second, let me quote one of the stories about this newly minted "high-ranking oil executive" that is currently all over Facebook and Twitter. The story is told by well-known music producer Alexander Cheparukhin: Then there came a loud, joyful mooing sound, and a very drunk man lurched over to our table, brandishing a shot glass and sloshing vodka everywhere. Extremely drunk—the kind of drunk beyond which people no longer function. Maybe he really was Jewish, although I had never seen Jews in such a state before. In him I recognized another famous TV host. I got scared. "Sasha, don’t be afraid of Misha, Misha is actually a good guy," Dima said. Misha kissed Dima all over, splashed vodka on my trousers, and tried to kiss me too, even though Misha and I had never met before. Apparently, he really was a good guy. But in horror I jumped up from my chair and dodged Misha’s embrace. Misha flopped down into my chair, and for the first time in my life I saw someone literally fall face-first into a salad. Olivier salad (a Russian potato-and-mayonnaise salad) sprayed in all directions. My clothes were splattered with vodka and Olivier salad. https://www.facebook.com/cheparukhin/posts/10202275797590435?stream_ref=10
So I take it philosophically, because I see it as perfectly natural—and as a consistent personnel policy. A greedy, incompetent bureaucrat appointed to head the country’s largest state-owned oil company set his own official salary at 138,000,000 (one hundred thirty-eight million) rubles per month (per month, yes, per month—I’m not mistaken). Who else was he supposed to hire as his chief PR man, if not a drunk from state television who can go on air about Putin’s greatness without ever regaining consciousness? Everything is going according to plan. Now we wait for him to appoint a tame bear with a balalaika as vice president for production, just to make it more fun flying girls to Paris on the corporate jet. All for the good of Russia.