personnel

Yesterday, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced something new after the Russian Federation in Slovenia - by presidential decree, the former head of the State Customs Committee, Mikhail Vanin, was appointed to this post. The former prominent member of the “family” team of ex-Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov found nothing to do within the country.

Mikhail Vanin was born on August 1, 1960 in the Moscow region. In 1982 he graduated from the Faculty of Law of Moscow State University, where he studied in the same course with Alexander Mamut and Dzhakhan Pollyeva. After graduating from the university, he was assigned to serve at the Sheremetyevo customs, where he worked as an inspector, head of the anti-smuggling department, and deputy head of the customs of Anatoly Kruglov. From January 1991 to January 1992 - Chief Advisor to the Treaty and Legal Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the RSFSR. In 1992 he moved to the central office of the State Customs Committee, and in 1995 he headed the department for combating customs offenses. From November 1998 to April 1999 - representative of the Russian customs service in Kyrgyzstan. Since April 1999, he headed the Customs Inspectorate of the State Customs Committee. On May 28, 1999, he was appointed Chairman of the State Customs Committee of the Russian Federation. On July 6, 2004, he was dismissed from this position. Married, his wife Maria Safarova is a co-founder of CJSC SVH-Jutland, which, according to media reports, was suspected of illegal customs clearance of goods in 1999.

Mikhail Vanin served as chief customs officer for four years - from May 1999 to July 2004. During this time, customs became a significant supplier of money to the federal budget, providing more than a third of its revenue. Another achievement of Mr. Vanin is the passage through the Duma of a new Customs Code that complies with international standards. However, despite this, after Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov left his post in February of this year, Mikhail Vanin was also predicted to resign soon. The main reason was said to be the ex-prime minister’s closeness to the “family” team. Mikhail Vanin nevertheless managed to sit in his chair for more than four months after the resignation of his patron, until on July 6 the new Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov appointed Alexander Zherikhov as chairman of the Federal Customs Service of Russia (as the State Customs Committee became known as a result of administrative reform). Immediately after his resignation, Mikhail Vanin said that he would definitely not remain working in the customs service.

Yesterday it became known about the new appointment of an experienced official. By presidential decree, he was actually sent into “honorable exile” - to represent Russia in Slovenia. The Slovenian direction has never been considered difficult or problematic. Slovenia is perhaps the only republic of the former Yugoslavia that left the federation relatively painlessly. To date, it is the only country from the former SFRY that has joined the European Union.

Ljubljana is the only world capital where the Russian and US embassies are literally wall to wall). The former Ambassador of the Russian Federation to Slovenia, Vyacheslav Dolgov, worked in this position for two years, which is not enough by the Foreign Ministry’s standards, but it should be taken into account that before his appointment to Ljubljana, Mr. Dolgov worked as Ambassador to Belarus for four years, so there is no talk of any hasty release of space for a new appointee there is no question.

The new ambassador's former boss, ex-head of the State Customs Committee Valery Draganov told Kommersant that "the Foreign Ministry in the person of Mikhail Vanin has found a very qualified person." Valery Draganov recalled that in the early 90s, Mr. Vanin already served in the Russian Foreign Ministry. “Under my leadership of the State Customs Committee, he was responsible for international law enforcement activities, participated in almost all external contacts of customs - he has good English and thorough legal training.”

VADIM VISLOGUZOV, BORIS VOLKHONSKY

Mikhail Vanin was exiled to Slovenia