The resignation of Oleg Feoktistov, vice president and head of the security service of Rosneft, was the main intrigue last week. The more often the media reported on the dismissal of the official, the more sharply denied this fact the official representative of Rosneft Mikhail Leontiev. It came to this that in an interview to RBC Leontyev even called Feoktistov's resignation "a delirium." However, last Friday, the head of Rosneft officially announced his resignation.

According to the chief executive officer of the company Igor Sechin, Oleg Feoktistov returned to "military service." As for the additional questions about the reason and the circumstances Feoktistov resigned under, Sechin did not answer. The representative of Rosneft declined to comment further. The source of Vedomosti in the FSB in the middle of the week told that Feoktistov was allegedly fired from military service, another person close to law enforcement agencies, said that Feoktistov "lost his shoulder straps."

Feoktistov joined Rosneft in September 2016. Prior to this, the security service was headed by Vasily Yurchenko, he became his first deputy. Shortly before the appointment of Feoktistov to Rosneft, the government paused the privatization of 50.08% of Bashneft and was going to return to this issue after the privatization of 19.5% of Rosneft. The reason for the postponement, according to Kommersant, was a conflict in power structures because of the possible participation of Rosneft in the transaction. Against the sale of Rosneft were Alexey Ulyukayev and Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich. The FSB got interested in the situation, Vedomosti wrote.

A source close to law enforcement agencies believes that the arrival of Feoktistov to Rosneft intensified the sale of Bashneft (in October 2016 the stake was sold to Rosneft for 329 billion rubles). On the night of November 15, the FSB and the Investigative Committee detained Ulyukaev on suspicion of taking a bribe of $2 million. Feoktistov took an active part in this matter, Sechin asked him to do that, even while he was working for the FSB, a high-ranking member of the security forces said.

The media reported that Feoktistov worked in Rosneft as a seconded employee. Such employees are part of the special apparatus and are "appointed by the director of the FSB in strategically important companies to look after them." Yurchenko after the appointment of Feoktistov continued to perform the duties of the head of the security service of Rosneft, while Feoktistov was engaged in "other projects", says an informed source.

Feoktistov until August 2016 led the 6th FSB department, wrote The New Times. According to it, this department was related to the detention of the governor of the Sakhalin region Alexander Khoroshavin, the head of the Komi Republic Vyacheslav Gayzer, the mayor of Vladivostok Igor Pushkarev, as well as the ex-governor of the Kirov region Nikita Belykh.

With the generals of the FSB, such things happen: they retire through state companies, and then return to the civil service, says political scientist Nikolay Petrov. It is never known whether a person is in active reserve or not. When Feoktistov went to Rosneft, they said that he lost in the internal struggle, now it is necessary to understand what position he can return to the security services, Petrov said.

But Feoktistov did not leave Rosneft definitively: on Thursday the Board of Directors of Bashneft approved the list of nominees for the board of directors for voting, one of the nominees became Feoktistov. In any case, work in the state-owned company brings a lot of money, emphasizes Petrov. The remuneration of 10 members of the board of Rosneft for the fourth quarter of 2016 amounted to 1.2 billion rubles, and the board of directors of Bashneft was paid 5 million rubles.