The two men were replaced by Dmitry Medvedev and Alexei Miller, who had previously worked with Putin in Saint Petersburg.

Instead of triumphantly conducting the yearly meeting of shareholders of Gazprom, the chief executive, Alexei Miller, never showed up.

Alexei Miller, The Ukrainian Question.

Last month, President Vladimir V. Putin replaced the company's entrenched chief executive with a close ally, Alexei Miller; today's meeting was the first since then.

Gazprom's chief executive, Alexei Miller, has been locked in a struggle for months with the subsidiary, known as Sibur, which manufactures petrochemicals.

In June 2008, Alexei Miller, head of Russian energy giant Gazprom, warned that the price of oil is likely to hit $250 a barrel sometime in 2009.

Together with Alexei Miller, Medvedev managed to put an end to the large-scale tax evasion and asset stripping that was going on in the company by the previous corrupt management.

His successor is Alexei Miller.

The executive, Vitaly Savelyev, a pro-market reformer with a banking background, resigned, reportedly over differences with Gazprom's chief executive, Alexei Miller.

Alexei Miller claimed that he is "positive that St. Petersburg's citizens will be proud of these new architectural masterpieces."