Rosneft's Vasily Nikonov appointed interim CEO at Unipro

MOSCOW. April 26 (Interfax) - Vasily Nikonov has been appointed interim CEO at PJSC Unipro, according information in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities.

He replaces Maxim Shirokov, CEO of Unipro since 2012.

Prior to this appointment, Nikonov was head of the energy department at Rosneft . In 2010-2012 he headed the Russian Energy Ministry's Power Industry Development Department and in 2015 he headed Lenenergo. Vyacheslav Kozhevnikov worked at Lenenergo at the same time - he was appointed head of another power company transferred to the temporary management of the Federal Property Management Agency by a presidential decree of April 25 - PJSC Fortum . Kozhevnikov was a top manager at Bashneft prior to his appointment at Fortum.

The Russian president issued a decree on Tuesday evening to introduce temporary management of Fortum's and Uniper's Russian assets. The decree applies to 83.73% of shares in PJSC Unipro and 98.23% of shares in PJSC Fortum . The Federal Property Agency has been designated the temporary manager.

Fortum's current understanding is that the new decree does not affect the title of ownership of the assets and companies in Russia. However, it remains unclear how this affects Fortum's Russian operations or the ongoing divestment process, the company said.

Uniper said it had not effectively exercised day-to-day management at the Russian asset since the end of 2022.

PJAC Unipro owns five thermal power plants in Russia: Surgutskaya GRES-2, Berezovskaya GRES, Shaturskaya GRES, Smolenskaya GRES, and Yaivinskaya GRES. The German energy holding Uniper owns 83.73% of Unipro.