The rise of Igor Sechin – the Darth Vader of Russia

Igor Sechin holds no official position in the Kremlin, but many consider the Rosneft boss the most powerful man in Russia after the president. Will he determine Putin’s successor? Jane Lewis reports.

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Sechin: one of the most feared men in Russia
(Image credit: © 2016 Bloomberg Finance LP)

Vladimir Putin secured a fourth term as Russia's president last weekend, but the real intrigue lies in what happens next. Barred by the constitution from seeking another term in 2024, Putin "might as well have been firing the starting gun for the race toward his succession", says The New York Times "a bare-knuckled, no-holds-barred fight" between the warring factions of his court and their oligarch allies. And in the thick of things will be the biggest behind-the-scenes power monger of the lot: Putin's right-hand man, Igor Sechin, once dubbed the "Darth Vader of Russia".

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Jane writes profiles for MoneyWeek and is city editor of The Week. A former British Society of Magazine Editors editor of the year, she cut her teeth in journalism editing The Daily Telegraph’s Letters page and writing gossip for the London Evening Standard – while contributing to a kaleidoscopic range of business magazines including Personnel Today, Edge, Microscope, Computing, PC Business World, and Business & Finance.

She has edited corporate publications for accountants BDO, business psychologists YSC Consulting, and the law firm Stephenson Harwood – also enjoying a stint as a researcher for the due diligence department of a global risk advisory firm.

Her sole book to date, Stay or Go? (2016), rehearsed the arguments on both sides of the EU referendum.

She lives in north London, has a degree in modern history from Trinity College, Oxford, and is currently learning to play the drums.