MOSCOW, December 12 (RIA Novosti) - Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin was elected board chairman of the Russian electricity export-import operator RAO UES on Friday, the company said.

Inter RAO UES, a RAO UES subsidiary until the state electricity holding ceased to exist in the summer of 2008, owns power generation and distribution assets in Russia and abroad with a total generating capacity of 8,000 MW.

The company's major shareholder is the Russian government with a 42.49% stake.

Sechin is also board chairman of Russia's largest oil company, Rosneft, and controls almost as much of the fuel and energy sector as Gazprom, a traditional rival of the state oil company that is also developing the power generating business.

Sergei Pikin, head of an independent think tank, the Power Development Fund, recently suggested that Sechin's control of Inter RAO would point to a change in the government's approach to the company, turning it primarily into a tool of influence rather than a commercial enterprise.