Russia’s MegaFon said a report by a Russian business daily its CEO Sergey Soldatenkov had resigned was inaccurate, and the executive retains “the full support of the board of directors”.

According to Vedomosti, Soldatenkov’s departure was due to the company’s weak financial figures, and the newspaper even named four members of the operator’s management council –  Natalya Chumachenko, Anna Serebryanikova, Vlad Wolfson and Gevork Vermishyan – as potential candidates to replace Soldatenkov.

However, in a statement, MegaFon said its board was: “encouraged by a number of improvements in performance and look forward to Soldatenkov [pictured, left] leading the company forward in implementation of its 2020 development strategy.”

Vladimir Streshinsky, chairman of the board, said shareholders were satisfied with the company’s development “and support the management and specifically Sergey Soldatenkov.”

He added: “competent implementation by the company’s management of the new strategy made it possible to turn around negative sector trends in Q2 2017, and the situation in the company’s business and on the market has shown the first signs of improvement.”