What will Navalny do in Aeroflot

In early August, the popular anti-corruption fighter and blogger Alexei Navalny became a member of the board of directors of Aeroflot. The key points of his activity are personnel policy and financial audit of the organization.

When choosing the new Aeroflot board of directors, the proposal to appoint Navalny as a member of this governing quorum sounded like a bolt from the blue. The author was co-owner of the company Alexander Lebedev, who owns about 15% of the shares. The issue was resolved positively by voting.

Alexey Navalny knew about his possible appointment back in February 2012, and even then he announced that he was going to throw all his efforts into the fight against corruption and the creation of Aeroflot corporate governance. In many ways, this decision was influenced by numerous scandals associated with this airline. So, one of the former deputy commercial directors of the company worked in the interests of two travel agencies, and did not give the rest of the carriers the opportunity to offer their customers advantageous trips to Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Vienna, etc. In 2011, the company suffered huge losses just in those areas that were given only to two travel agencies.

The well-known blogger intends to work with Aeroflot according to a special program developed by himself (the “six-step program”). It includes such a measure as the exclusion of civil servants from the governing councils of enterprises, the consideration of certain appointments only by a special council, as well as the creation of a system for anonymous reporting of abuses in official places and much more.

In July 2012, correspondence appeared between Navalny and Sergei Aleksashenko, a member of Aeroflot’s board of directors, in which the latter consulted with a blogger on declassifying company documents. After the publication, a flurry of demands followed to expel Navalny from the board of directors of Aeroflot, but this did not happen.

Navalny plans to conduct a full audit of Aeroflot and identify all available financial flaws, as well as the reasons for their appearance. He also intends to develop a special personnel selection system for the company and create a special fund for managing Aeroflot shares, whose task will be to create conditions for the growth of securities.