The first AGM of Russian gas giant Gazprom took place on Friday.

In a sign of the company's political importance, and Putin's influence within it, Dmitry Medvedev, acting deputy head of the presidential administration took over as head of the board from Viktor Chernomyrdin, Yeltsin's Prime Minister for six years. "My vision for the board is two-fold," Medvedev told a news briefing after his election. "One is fulfilling the demands of the law on joint-stock companies, deciding priority issues, and in particular working out future plans for Gazprom's development." "And my second role is to defend the interests of shareholders, in particular the state as the principal shareholder of Gazprom." The state owns 38 percent of the monopoly, Russia's largest and richest company, which sits on around a quarter of the world's gas and contributes a quarter of Russia's federal tax revenues, giving it immense political importance. Of the other members of the 11-strong board, a further four were nominated by the state, giving it the largest block with five seats, while four members, including chief executive Rem Vyakhirev, were nominated by Gazprom. The other two members are Burckhard Bergmann, deputy head of German gas company Ruhrgas, which owns four percent of Gazprom, and Boris Fyodorov, a former government minister and deputy prime minister, who was nominated by minority shareholders.