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
Gazprom Neft These companies are developing fields in the Yamalo-Nenets and Khanty-Mansi autonomous areas and the Omsk, Tomsk, Tyumen and Irkutsk regions. Gazprom Neft also holds 50% stakes in three dependent companies: Slavneft, Tomskneft and Salym Petroleum Development. In 2010, Gazprom Neft partnered with Novatek to acquire 51%of SeverEnergia which owns Arktikgaz and Urengoil companies. In 2012, Gazprom Neft refined 43.3 million tonnes of oil. The company wholly or partly owns 5 oil refineries (the Omsk Oil Refinery, Moscow Oil Refinery, Slavneft-Yaroslavnefteorgsintez (YANOS) and two oil refineries in Pančevo and Novi Sad that belong to Naftna Industrija Srbije). The company operates around