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 Promgaz for gas supply of South Ossetia and Armenia. Gazprom Promgaz plans gas transportation and its distribution systems, as well as investigating various research in the field of natural gas. The company is the general planner of the natural gas supply program for Russian regions, developed by Gazprom. The company is also a research center of Gazprom in the field of regional power systems, the supply, distribution and use of gas, efficient energy use and energy-savings, price setting for construction of gas industry objectives, the development of regional hydrocarbon fields and development of non-traditional hydrocarbon resources including coal bed methane. Gazprom