All change at diamond giant Alrosa as top post goes to Sergei Ivanov Jr

The new president will be Sergei Ivanov Jr, son of Sergei Ivanov, the former chief of the Russian presidential administration and deputy prime minister who also served as defence minister. 

The new head of the diamond giant brings a wealth of business and banking experience, and is currently senior vice president of Sberbank. After graduating from prestigious Moscow State Institute of International Relations, he worked for Gazprom and Gazprombank. 

From 2011 to 2016, he headed the board of directors of OJSC SOGAZ.

He replaces Andrey Zharkov as president of Russia's top diamond producer Alrosa, in a change announced by deputy premier and presidential envoy to the Russian Far East, Yuri Trutnev.

There is speculation that differences arose between Trutnev ally Zharkov and senior officials over the sale by the Federal Property Management Agency of the controlling stake in OJSC 'Diamond World', until recently the Russian only custom diamond processing point, and other issues.

Alrosa is a group of Russian diamond producers. It mines diamonds in the Sakha (Yakutia) region of Siberia, the Arkhangelsk region and in Africa.

In 2016, Alrosa's production amounted to 37.2 million carats. Diamond sales totaled 40.1 million carats. The company forecasts production of 39.2 million carats this year.

The largest shareholders of Alrosa are the Russian Federation with 33.02%, the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) 25%, local districts in Yakutia 8%, with 34% on the open market.