The former president of Poland, who is on the board of the Ukrainian gas company Burisma, says that Hunter Biden was chosen to join because he was the son of then-Vice President Joe Biden.

Former Polish president Aleksander Kwasniewski, 65, revealed how nepotism landed Hunter, 49, a spot on the high-profile international board for Burisma Holdings, in an interview with AP Thursday.

However, Kwasniewski, who was president from 1995 to 2005, says that Hunter didn't abuse his political connections to his father to further the company's interests.

'I understand that if someone asks me to be part of some project it's not only because I'm so good, it's also because I am Kwasniewski and I am a former president of Poland,' he said. 'And this is all inter-connected. No-names are a nobody. Being Biden is not bad. It's a good name.'

'He was a normal member of this group. We didn't ask him - and he never said anything - about his father,' Kwasniewski said of Hunter.

Former Polish president Aleksander Kwasniewski says Hunter Biden got a seat on the board of Ukrainian gas company Burisma through nepotism because he's the son of Joe Biden

Kwasniewski, who was president from 1995 to 2005, says that Biden didn't abuse his political connections to Joe Biden to further the company's interests. He said Biden rarely spoke about his own family, and when he did it was only when asked

Kwasniewski also said Burisma members never tried to use Hunter to curry favor with the administration of Barack Obama when Joe Biden was vice president from 2009 to 2017.

The only time that Joe Biden came up was when fellow board members asked Hunter how his father was doing. Kwasniewski recalled Biden only spoke once to the group about the death of his brother Beau, who passed away in 2015 following a battle with brain cancer.

He said Hunter carried out research and brought a unique American perspective to the company, including in the areas of corporate governance, capital markets and gas drilling equipment, where Americans are world leaders.

'He collected information. He was useful for us because he knew something that we didn't know,' Kwasniewski said.

Hunter was on the board of Burisma from 2014 to April 2019, when his term expired.

His time on that board has come under scrutiny and was the catalyst of the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump.

Trump came under fire for a phone call with Ukraine's young new president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, urging him to investigate Hunter's work with Burisma, while withholding some $400 million in military aid.

Hunter Biden joined Burisma in 2014 - while Joe Biden was Vice President. He was hired to boost the company's reputation in the midst of scandal as the Burisma Mykola Zlochevsky was accused of embezzling state money

'He collected information. He was useful for us because he knew something that we didn't know,' Kwasniewski said on working with Biden. Kwasniewski was president from 1995 to 2005 and remains on the board of Burisma

Kwasniewski, who is still on the board of Burisma, said that the Trump administration's involvement in Ukraine threatened the company.

He said that Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani made requests to a Ukrainian prosecutor seeking to obtain comments that would depict Burisma as corrupt.

Trump has described Hunter Biden as a 'disgrace' for his work with Burisma, but Kwasniewski is calling out the president for using such incendiary language.

'This man is speaking about someone who is disgraced? Donald Trump? It should be forbidden for him,' he said.

Critics thought that it was inappropriate for Hunter Biden to serve on Burisma's board while his father was Vice President and pressuring Ukraine to clean up systemic corruption.

During the impeachment inquiry this fall, George Kent, a career diplomat overseeing Ukraine policy, testified that in 2015 he warned the vice president´s staff that his son's position with the company 'could create the perception of a conflict of interest' but nothing was done about it.

Hunter was hired onto the board of Burisma to clean up the company's reputation after its founder Mykola Zlochevsky was accused of corruption and embezzling state money.

Biden was hired that same year, along with others and successfully got the company on its feet.

When Hunter was tapped for the job, Kwasniewski had a short phone call with him in which he told him Burisma was determined to be well-managed and transparent.

Biden was reportedly a valuable asset to the company, helping the company rise from scandal to successfully be able to tap into Ukraine's gas deposits - a powerful move will help the country gain energy independence from Russia

Zlochevsky, who lives abroad, is still facing a probe on suspicions of large-scale embezzlement.

Kwasniewski acknowledged that the company has a difficult past 'because the past of all companies, all fortunes in Ukraine - diplomatically speaking - are very complicated.'

'But now the company is really well organized,' Kwasniewski said. 'They want to work according to the rules. The role of this company is very important for Ukraine because the success of Burisma means less dependence of Ukraine on Russia.'

At the time he told Biden that if Burisma succeeded in tapping into Ukraine's gas deposits, it could help the country gain energy independence from Russia, a key milestone in its struggle to stand as a sovereign nation.

Today Burisma now produces about 25% to 30% of the gas on the Ukrainian market and Ukraine - where Russia in past winters has turned off the gas flow as a form of political pressure - is in fact becoming 'less and less dependent on Russia.'

However, the impeachment inquiry scandal has cast a shadow over the company.

Kwasniewski joked that Burisma is now 'the most popular company in the United States'.

With the flurry of media attention and controversy Burisma colleagues are upset over being dragged into a U.S. political affair and feel like 'sailors on a small boat in the middle of a cyclone.'

'For the company it´s a difficult time,' he said. 'And they are innocent in this situation.'