Igor Sechin: Formidable 'head of Putin's clan' could take Russia's top job

For much of his career, Igor Sechin operated in the shadows. There was a long-running joke among US diplomats: that this man who was said to be feared by many in the Kremlin didn't actually exist. He was, they said, a mythical creature, a bogeyman fabricated by Russian top brass to instil fear abroad.

But as the Noughties turned to the Tens, there he was, Sechin, the new president of the mighty Rosneft oil company.

It is no surprise that he managed to bag the job: a long-time ally of Vladimir Putin and his former deputy chief of staff, Sechin was destined for a bright future.

Now, there are whispers that Sechin could be the man to eventually replace Putin, something that Express.co.uk was recently told will be a conversation in Russia in the coming years.

Sechin has been a confidante of Putin since the early Nineties when he became his Chief of Staff in what was then the President's role of first Deputy Mayor of St Petersburg.

From here the pair grew closer, and Sechin slowly made his way into Putin's inner circle, soon becoming his deputy at the presidential property management department.

By 1999, Sechin had become deputy chief of Putin's presidential administration and continued to rise through the ranks until 2008 when President Dmitry Medvedev as Deputy Prime Minister of Russia, something that was considered a demotion.

Despite this he maintained his influence and, according to US publisher Stratfor: "Sechin acts as the boss of Russia's gigantic state oil company Rosneft and commands the loyalty of the FSB. Thus, he represents the FSB's hand in Russia's energy sector."

Such is his forbidding figure, according to The Guardian, Sechin has garnered two nicknames: Putin's "Darth Vader" and "the scariest man on Earth".

Writing in an opinion piece for the publication, journalist Luke Harding, who last year was refused re-entry into Russia, noted that "Sechin is widely regarded to be the head of the Kremlin's siloviki clan," a group of figures such as Sergei Shoigu, Nikolai Patrushev, and Alexander Bortnikov.

In 2012, Sechin was handed the top job at Rosneft, one of the world's largest public oil production companies, and so was essentially given a key to the operation of Russia's economy. Annual revenues of Rosneft alone are thought to be big enough to fund around 40 percent of Russia's military budget.

Sechin is blacklisted by many countries and outfits around the world, including the EU. When the bloc sanctioned him, its statement read: "He is one of Vladimir Putin’s most trusted and closest advisers, as well as his personal friend. He has been in contact with the Russian president on a daily basis.”

In his years at Rosneft, Sechin has negotiated oil deals on behalf of Russia around the world, and Putin is said to have rewarded him for this with "great wealth".

One of the deals struck included the US's ExxonMobil, whose chairman, Rex Tillerson, took great interest in Sechin and was later appointed US Secretary of State by former US president Donald Trump.

Stanislav Belkovsky, an analyst formerly connected to the Kremlin, told Vox in 2017: "Putin will count on Sechin as an agent of influence on Tillerson, as a lobbyist."

In 2013, as recognition for the favourable deals struck with Rosneft, Putin awarded Tillerson the Order of Friendship, one of the highest honours Russia gives to foreign citizens.

The sum he has amassed as a result of his Rosneft role does not include only his salary, according to the EU, and by 2015 had reached a figure of as much as £9.6million.

Such favours in Russia work both ways, and Putin is said to have benefitted handsomely from giving Sechin a leg up.

Rosneft, it has been reported, has financed the vineyards of a luxurious palace complex used by Putin in Gelendzhik, a resort on the Black Sea.

Yet, while it may seem as though Sechin and Putin have a mutual benefits relationship, some have suggested that Sechin may have grown too big for his boots.

"He has his own way of doing things. This is his style. He is quite a pushy man," a source told the Financial Times in 2018.

"He is really aggressive in his work. People do not like him. People in the government. They dislike him a lot. Putin knows this and he jokes about this. Really. I don’t know if [Putin] likes him personally but he likes his effectiveness in certain fields.”