The oilman who came in from the cold
Just wanted to know who’s in charge
A friend from Washington writes about this bit of seriously unreported news: Igor Sechin, the CEO of Rosneft, Russia’s state-owned oil giant and one of the Kremlin’s most powerful people, was in Caracas recently, pledging $1.1 billion to “develop” Venezuela’s oil and gas fields (i.e., to give cash-strapped Venezuela a lifeline, now that the Chinese have said no to more handouts).
Here is the Moscow Times prior to the visit, and after the visit. Here is the Russiapedia profile of the guy.
In 2009, Forbes described our good friend and business partner like this:
He’s been depicted as Darth Vader in the Russian press and described as “the scariest person on Earth.” Igor Sechin’s official title is deputy prime minister, but within Russia, many consider him the most powerful individual in the country after Vladimir Putin. (Yes–that means he’s more influential than the president.)
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