Gazprom members, such as Chernomyrdin and the Gazprom Chief Executive Officer, Rem Viakhirev, engaged in asset-stripping. Gazprom assets were shared amongst their relatives. Itera, a gas trading company also received Gazprom assets. In March 1998, for reasons unrelated to his activities at Gazprom, Chernomyrdin was fired by Yeltsin. On 30 June 1998, Chernomyrdin was made Chairman of the Board of Directors of Gazprom. When, in June 2000, Vladimir Putin became the President of Russia, he acted to gain control over Russia's oligarchs, and increase the Government of Russia's control in important companies through a program of national champions. Putin fired Chernomyrdin
Sibir Energy Sibir Energy. On 15 February 2011, it announced becoming the only shareholder in Sibir Energy after the withdrawal of the Moscow government-controlled Central Fuel Company. The company's primary assets are Salym oil fields in Nefteyugansk area operated by Salym Petroleum Development, a 51% voting share in Moscow Oil Refinery, operated in partnership with Gazprom Neft, and a substantial interest in Moscow-based gasoline retail networks. Through its subsidiary, Magma, Sibir Energy has interests in the Yuzhnoye and Orekhovskoye fields in West Siberia. It owns the Moscow Oil and Gas Company (formerly: The Moscow Oil Company). Before takeover by Gazprom Neft, Sibir