It is now official. François Fillon has been appointed to the board of directors of the Russian public oil group Zaroubejneft, according to the list of its members available, Saturday, July 3, on the website of the Center for the disclosure of business information, specializing in the disclosure of information Russian companies and managed by the Russian News Agency Interfax. The candidacy of the former French prime minister, proposed by the Russian government, had been announced in an official Russian document released on June 11, as revealed The world.
Regarding this candidacy, Mr. Fillon then declared to the World : “Today, I left the public scene and I am developing my international consulting activities. I have accompanied several European companies to Russia in recent months and it is in this context that I was offered a seat on the board of directors of several Russian companies. “ The former prime minister also regretted a presentation “Caricatural” of his positions on Russia, with which he advocates “A dialogue in the interest of Europe”.
A company active in the export of hydrocarbons
Mr. Fillon has been a member of the board of directors of this oil company 100% owned by the Russian state and specializing in the development and exploitation of hydrocarbon deposits, especially abroad, since June 28. .
Founded in 1967, the Zaroubejneft group’s mission was to provide technical assistance to countries friendly to the USSR, in particular to build oil infrastructures and develop their hydrocarbon deposits. Thus, he has participated in the realization of many projects in the oil sector, in particular in Algeria, Afghanistan, Vietnam, Egypt, India, Syria and Vietnam. Since the end of the 2000s, Zaroubejneft has also carried out extraction and refining projects in the Balkans, Latin America and northern Russia.
Sentenced in June 2020 to five years in prison, including two closed, in a resounding case of fictitious jobs which had derailed his presidential campaign in 2017, Mr. Fillon joined the Russian group as president of Apteras SARL, the consulting company he founded in 2017 and which already works with French companies established in Russia.
He thus joins former senior foreign officials who are already on the board of directors of Russian oil groups. Former Austrian foreign minister Karin Kneissl, who waltzed with Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2018, was appointed in June to the board of directors of Russian oil giant Rosneft, where the former German chancellor Gerhard Schröder has already been in office for several years.
Contacted by Agence France-Presse, the Zaroubejneft group was not reachable for immediate comments.
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