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
Crown corporations of Canada the public that otherwise would not be economically viable as a private enterprise, or don't fit exactly within the scope of any ministry. They are involved in everything from the distribution, use, and price of certain goods and services to energy development, resource extraction, public transportation, cultural promotion, and property management. In Canada, Crown corporations, within either the federal or provincial spheres, are owned by the monarch, as the institution's sole legal shareholder; this follows the legal premise that the Crown, as an institution, owns all the property of state. Crown corporations although owned in right of the Crown, are