François Fillon's activities in the Russian petroleum industry continue.
After joining the board of directors of Zaroubejneft, a Russian company specializing in the development and exploitation of hydrocarbon deposits last July, his name now appears on the board of directors of Russian petrochemical giant Sibur.
Sibur has published an updated list of its board of directors, indicating that the former French prime minister has been appointed to the board as an independent director.
The group is notably controlled by Leonid Mikhelson, one of the richest men in Russia, and Gennadi Timchenko, a close friend of President Vladimir Putin.
Politics and hydrocarbons
He thus joins the list of former senior foreign officials who sit on the board of directors of Russian oil groups.
Among them, we find in particular the former head of Austrian diplomacy Karin Kneissl, who had danced a waltz with Vladimir Poutin during his marriage in 2018, appointed in June to the Russian oil giant Rosneft.
Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, a longtime friend of Vladimir Putin, is Chairman of the Board of Directors of Rosneft.
At the end of June, François Fillon joined the board of directors of another Russian company, Zaroubejneft, specializing in the development and exploitation of hydrocarbon deposits, particularly abroad, owned by the State.
Fillon, who led the French government under the presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy between 2007 and 2012, was sentenced in June 2020 to five years in prison, two of which closed, at first instance, in a resounding case of fictitious jobs.
This case, for which he was tried on appeal last November, had derailed his presidential campaign in 2017, after which he had announced to retire from political life to pursue a career "in the private sector".
He is now the head of Apteras, a consulting firm he created in 2017.