Yevgeny Primakov died

A well-known Soviet and Russian politician, former head of the Russian government, died on Friday in Moscow at the age of 86

Primakov was born on October 29, 1929 in Kyiv. He is known as a Soviet and Russian economist, orientalist-Arabist, who headed the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Economics and International Relations in the 80s, was one of the leading consultants to the Soviet leadership on foreign policy issues, and was one of the comrades-in-arms of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

In 1989, he took the post of Chairman of the Council of the Union of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, in 1990 he became a member of the Presidential Council of the USSR, and in 1991 he took the post of member of the Security Council of the USSR.

Primakov's diplomacy became widely known during the crisis in the Persian Gulf and the first war in Iraq in 1991, when his course was interpreted by many as an alternative to the pro-Western position taken by the USSR Foreign Ministry, headed at that time by Eduard Shevardnadze.

During the August 1991 putsch, he refused to join the State Emergency Committee and supported Gorbachev. In September 1991, he headed the USSR Foreign Intelligence Service, and in January 1992, Russian President Boris Yeltsin appointed him director of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service.

In 1996-1998, he was the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry and pursued a course that was assessed in the West as tough, in particular during the Balkan crisis. Nevertheless, this course enjoyed broad domestic political support in Russia.

In September 1998, he was appointed head of the Russian government in the context of an acute internal political crisis that arose after the declaration of default and the fall of the government of Sergei Kiriyenko. Primakov's candidacy was recognized as a compromise and acceptable by all factions of the State Duma.

In March 1999, Primakov’s demarche became widely known when he turned his plane over the Atlantic and refused to fly on a visit to the United States in protest against the start of the bombing of Yugoslavia.

In May 1999, he was dismissed from the post of Prime Minister of the Russian Federation and became one of the leaders of the Fatherland - All Russia bloc and one of President Yeltsin’s opponents.

In 2000-2001 he was the leader of the OVR faction in the State Duma, from 2001 to 2011 he was president of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Photo: ITAR-TASS/Andrey Epikhin