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–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.