Blowout

This chapter explores Igor Sechin, who rose through the ranks to become Vladimir Putin’s right-hand man. Through years of faithful service to the Russian president, Sechin became “Putin’s closest confidant and his number one loyalist” (170), which eventually landed him the post of top oil man in Russia. After the collapse of Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s company Yukos, Sechin was put in charge of Rosneft, the state-owned company that absorbed Yukos through a corrupt takeover.

Sechin is described as ruthless, absolutely loyal to Putin, and willing to do anything for Russia. Maddow writes, “Sechin acted as the president’s jealous sentry and, when needed, his enthusiastic attack dog” (170). Thus, when Sechin was appointed chairman of the board for Rosneft, Putin knew he had someone he could trust, a man who shared his principles and values. With the promotion came changes and new expectations for Sechin, however. Sechin now had to craft a better narrative for himself, dropping the bogeyman of the Kremlin persona for a more personable, Western-friendly image. Most notably, when Rex Tillerson came knocking for ExxonMobil, Sechin was ready to shake hands and play nice. Tillerson needed Sechin to access to Russian oil, because at the time Sechin was perhaps the only man in Russia whom Putin trusted.

The chapter’s title refers to Rex Tillerson, who swooped in to save the day for Putin’s Russia by signing an ExxonMobil-Rosneft megadeal, in which Rosneft received “30 percent stakes in a handful of ExxonMobil’s projects in North America, from Alberta, Canada, to the Gulf of Mexico” (182), and ExxonMobil finally got access to oil and gas in Siberia, the Black Sea, and the Kara Sea, located in Arctic waters. Putin would remain in charge, but ExxonMobil had gained access to Russian oil, a feat that had at one point seemed impossible for any US or European company. Putin had been mounting a strategy to become an energy superpower, using events such as the 2006 G8 Summit to make Russia’s pitch to the West. After what looked like a promising beginning, with European nations essentially ignoring Russia’s human rights violations to access Russian fuel, Putin’s vices caught up to him. His merciless obliteration of competition led to a decline in production. The state-owned Gazprom, for instance, was inefficient and poorly run, which eventually led to the “Handsome Hero” arriving last minute to save Russian oil.