CHUBAIS ELECTED TO BOARD OF ELECTRICITY GIANT.

A meeting of shareholders on April 4 elected former First Deputy Premier Anatoly Chubais to the board of directors of United Energy Systems, Russia’s electricity monopoly. It also accepted the resignation of Boris Brevnov, an ally of Acting First Deputy Premier Boris Nemtsov, as chairman of the board, but elected him a director. First Deputy Chairman of the Board Oleg Britvin was appointed acting chairman in Brevnov’s place, but a permanent appointment will not be made until after the new Russian government is in place. The other new directors included Acting Deputy Fuel and Energy Minister Viktor Kudryavy, who has the nomination of the government majority shareholder to chair the board. Chubais is expected to use his position on the board to try to cut the Gordian knot of inter-enterprise debt, of which UES represents a key segment. Chubais expressed satisfaction that the number of state representatives on the board had risen from seven to nine, marking an increase in government control over the company and reflecting the scale of the problems that inter-enterprise debt creates not just for firms and their work forces but for the state as a whole. (RTR, Reuter, April 4)

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