Forbes names Rosneft oil giant CEO highest-paid exec in Russia

PanARMENIAN.Net - The president of Russian oil giant Rosneft, Igor Sechin, is the highest-paid executive in the country, according to a rating of top managers’ salaries published Thursday, November 21 by the local edition of Forbes magazine, RIA Novosti reported.

Sechin, Russia’s former deputy prime minister and a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, earned $50 million over the last year for his work as Rosneft president, bumping him to the top of Forbes’ list from third place last year.

The president of VTB Bank, Andrei Kostin, took second place with a $35 million salary, followed by the head of state-run gas giant Gazprom Alexei Miller, with $25 million.

The study, which ranks chief executive officers in Russia by salary with bonuses, found that public-sector managers earned significantly more than their private sector counterparts.

The wage gap between public and private sector companies is also growing, Forbes said.

Executive salaries in state-owned companies have risen significantly since last year, the first year Forbes published the ranking, while wages for private sector CEOs did not largely change.

The 2012 list included 11 CEOs of state-owned companies, who had earned a total of $147 million. In 2013, the ranking swelled to 13 state company CEOs earning $226 million.

By comparison, salaries for top executives in the private sector stayed steady: $97 million in total salary in 2013, compared with $99 million in 2012.

The 25 highest-paid CEOs in Russia earned a combined $325 million a year, Forbes said, a third more than the same group in 2012.