Gazprom for vouchers. Fifteen percent of the stock was allocated to Gazprom employees. The state retained 40% of the shares. That amount was gradually lowered to thirty-eight percent. Trading of Gazprom's shares was heavily regulated. Foreigners were prohibited from owning more than nine-percent of the shares. In October 1996, 1% of Gazprom's equity was offered for sale to foreigners as Global Depository Receipts. In 1997, Gazprom offered a bond issue of US$2.5 billion. Chernomyrdin, as Prime Minister of Russia, ensured Gazprom avoided tight state regulation. Gazprom evaded taxes, and the Government of Russia received little in dividends. Gazprom managers and board
Gazprom–RusVelo Gazprom–RusVelo Gazprom–RusVelo (), a part of the Russian Global Cycling Project, is a Russian road & track cycling team. It was founded in late 2011 and granted UCI Professional Continental status. For its first season 2012 the team signed several ex- riders along with a few ones from Continental Team . RusVelo includes both men's and women's rosters. The directors are Viatcheslav Ekimov, Oleg Grishkin, Egon van Kessel from the Netherlands, and Australian Henk Vogels. The General Manager is Heiko Salzwedel. In December 2012, RusVelo's request for a Professional Continental licence for the 2013 season was denied pending a review.