The former prime ministers of Italy and Finland and the ex-chancellor of Austria resigned from the boards of Russian companies on Thursday following Vladimir Putin’s full-scale military invasion of Ukraine.
Matteo Renzi, the former prime minister of Italy and a senator for the centrist Italia Viva party, walked away from Delimobil, Russia’s largest car-sharing service, founded by Italian businessman Vincenzo Trani, in response to Russia’s military action.
Renzi emailed Delimobil’s board of directors on Thursday morning to communicate his resignation with immediate effect, he told the Financial Times.
Esko Aho, the former prime minister of Finland, quit the board of Russia’s largest bank, Sberbank, where he served for six years as an independent director and member of the supervisory board.
“I saw that in these circumstances it’s impossible for me to participate in the work of the supervisory board. I have no reason to protest against the bank and its activities. But because of the war, circumstances are making my participation impossible,” he told the FT.
“I can see a risk of conflict I would like to avoid — between my role in the supervisory board and what’s going on in the Russian economy and politics,” he said. “I was not there because of political reasons, but I have to leave for political reasons.”
Sberbank declined to comment. Aho said it was his personal choice that had nothing to do with the bank.
“It’s my personal decision, my personal conclusion,” he said. “I saw the challenges in my role because of the sanctions, it’s obvious that it will be difficult to be an active participant in this operation.”
Christian Kern, Austria’s former chancellor, said he had resigned from the board of Russian Railways (RZD) on Thursday morning with immediate effect.
“RZD had now actually become part of Russian war logistics,” Kern told the Austrian newspaper Der Standard, adding: “I deeply regret this . . . My thoughts are with the victims of this senseless aggression.”
Nadya Christina Wells, Natalie Alexandra and Braginsky Mounier also resigned from Sberbank’s board on Thursday. “[The board members] are considered to have retired from the supervisory board [on] February 24, 2022 upon personal requests,” the bank said in a statement.
The resignations underline the pressure on members of the western business and political elite who sit on corporate boards of Russian groups, as President Vladimir Putin launched what could be the biggest military operation in Europe since the second world war.
Other former European politicians and public officials with ties to Russian corporate boards include Germany’s former chancellor Gerhard Schröder, who sits on the board of Russian state-owned oil company Rosneft and has been nominated to join the board of Gazprom, the Russian gas supplier.
François Fillon, France’s former prime minister, sits on the board of Sibur, the petrochemicals group. Fillon said in a statement on Thursday that he condemned the use of force in Ukraine, but added that he had also warned for years that the west was not taking Russian concerns over Nato’s expansion seriously enough.
“This attitude has led us today to a dangerous confrontation that could have been avoided,” Fillon said. He praised recent French diplomatic efforts on Russia and said they should continue.
Karin Kneissl, former Austrian foreign minister, sits on the board of Rosneft. And Trani, the founder of Delimobil, is also the head of the Italy-Russia chamber of commerce, the group that promoted a meeting between Putin and top Italian business leaders last month. The car-sharing company was set to go public at the end of last year but the listing was postponed due to the rising geopolitical tensions.
Western executives, including BP chief executive Bernard Looney, Nord Stream 2 chief Matthias Warnig and Eni’s Ernesto Ferlenghi, also sit on Russian corporate boards.
Looney is a director of Rosneft, as is Bob Dudley, the former chief executive of BP.
Warnig is the chair of the board of Transneft, the gas pipeline operator, and is a member of the supervisory board of VTB Bank.
Ferlenghi, is a board member of Federal Grid, the operator and manager of Russia’s unified electricity transmission grid system
Lord Barker of Battle, a climate minister under former UK prime minister David Cameron, runs Rusal’s parent company En+.
Additional reporting from Neil Hume in London, Richard Milne in Oslo and Erika Salomon in Berlin
Former European leaders resign from Russian corporate boards
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