Russia’s State Transport Leasing Company, known under its Russian acronym as GTLK, has announced the resignation of its chairman.
”Vitaly Savelyev, minister of transport of the Russian Federation, stepped down as the chairman of the board of directors of the company prior to expiry of his term in office,” the company said in an e-mailed statement.
The statement didn’t elaborate further on the reasons of the resignation.
Savelyev is included in a sanctions list of hundreds of Russian officials announced by the EU after Russia invaded Ukraine last month.
According to GTLK’s statement, the company’s new 11-member board elected earlier in March includes general director A.I. Boginsky and Russian’s deputy industry minister O.E. Bocharov.
Fine line
Neither Moscow-based GTLK nor its Dublin-based subsidiary GTLK Global and affiliates have been sanctioned.
However, given GTLK’s links to the Russian ministry of transport, there was a risk that it may at some point be in the sanctions firing line.
Ship leasing is a small part of the company’s portfolio, which is heavily oriented towards aircraft and railway equipment.
French authorities have recently intercepted two vessels linked to GTLK to verify whether they violated non-shipping sanctions against Russia.
Vessel trackers show the 38,600-dwt handysize Pola Ariake (built 2019) as still moored at the port of Lorient in the Atlantic. The 8,200-dwt general cargo ship Victor Andryukhin (built 2021) is at the Mediterranean port of Fos-sur-Mer.
