Former French Prime Minister François Fillon has been proposed to the board of directors of a Russian state-owned oil group, Zaroubejneft.
The information is available in a Russian government decree released on Friday evening.
French Prime Minister between 2007 and 2012, François Fillon would thus become one of the “representatives of the Russian Federation” on the board of directors of this company specializing in the development and exploitation of hydrocarbon deposits, in particular at the foreign.
Sentenced in June 2020 to five years in prison, two of which closed in a resounding case of fictitious jobs which derailed his presidential campaign in 2017, François Fillon would join the Russian group only as president of Apteras Sarl, the company of consultancy that he founded in 2017 and which already works with French companies established in Russia.
He would join former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder
Zaroubejneft's approval of his candidacy, presented in the decree signed by Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Michoustine, should only be a formality.
Other former senior foreign officials are already on the boards of Russian oil companies.
Former Austrian diplomat Karin Kneissl, who danced a waltz with Vladimir Putin in 2018, was appointed in June to the board of directors of Russian oil giant Rosneft, where former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder has been present since several years.
Founded in 1967, the Zaroubejneft group's mission was to provide technical assistance to countries friendly to the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) to build oil infrastructure there and develop their hydrocarbon deposits.
Thus he participated in the realization of many projects in the oil field, in particular in Algeria, Afghanistan, Vietnam, Egypt, India, Syria and Vietnam.
