Gazprom Boris Yeltsin, the Russian President, appointed Chernomyrdin, Gazprom's Chairman, his Prime Minister, the company's political influence increased. Rem Viakhirev took the chairmanship of Gazprom's Board of Directors and Managing Committee. Following the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of 5 November 1992 and the Resolution of the Government of Russia of 17 February 1993, Gazprom became a joint-stock company. Gazprom began to distribute shares under the voucher method. (Each Russian citizen received vouchers to purchase shares of formerly state-owned companies). By 1994, 33% of Gazprom's shares had been bought by 747,000 members of the public, mostly in exchange
Gazprom government since the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior in 1985." The charges of piracy were dropped in October 2013. In November 2013, twenty-seven of the campaigners were released on bail. Greenpeace has not staged a protest at Prirazlomnaya oil platform since, instead choosing to protest against Western drilling operations due to those countries being considerably more tolerant of their activities. In May 2014, the first shipment of Arctic oil arrived at a refinery in the Netherlands and was purchased by the French company, Total. Gazprom Public Joint Stock Company Gazprom (, "Publichnoe Aktsionernoe Obshchestvo Gazprom", abbreviated PAO Gazprom, , )