The Chairman of VTB Andrey Kostin heads the Forbes high pay list with about $30 million annual compensation in 2011, followed by Gazprom and Rosneft CEOs earning about $25 million each. However, VTB has already denied the boss’s pay packet.
On Monday VTB bank denied the accuracy of the income of its chairman Andrey Kostin published in Forbes. According to the VTB official accounts for 2011 the entire management of the bank received about $20 million. "Opaque calculation methods put experts on shaky ground of speculation and assumptions," VTB said in its official statement. "Their logic is flawed in terms of calculations, and particularly in common sense. "Forbes conducted a study of the 70 largest companies by revenue in 2011, excluding the state corporations and companies run by their owners such as Lukoil, Severstal, and Rusal. The magazine’s experts studied official company reports, interviewed over 10 senior management head hunters, and used information sources to calculate CEO compensation. The final figure takes into account the reward the CEO gets from the company (including salary, bonus, and a percentage of profits) and from the boards of subsidiaries. Experts also considered the possible benefits of managers outside Russia. Among other Russian state companies’ top managers that topped the list is the head of Sberbank German Gref at the fourth place with $15 million salary, followed by the Chairman of the Bank of Moscow Mikhail Kuzovlev with similar compensation. The only woman that got to the list is the General Director of "Basic Element" Gulzhan Moldazhanova. She earns $ 4 million a year making it to 23d place in the list.