Yevgeny Primakov

Copyright 1998 ABC-CLIO, Inc.
Kaleidoscope
COUNTRY: Russia
PERSON: Yevgeny Primakov

HEADLINE: Biographies

Yevgeny Primakov is the foreign minister of Russia. A longtime Soviet bureaucrat, Primakov has hovered close to the organs of power since the administration of Leonid Brezhnev. An economist and politician, he assumed his current post in January 1996, replacing Andrei Kozyrev, who was long scorned by nationalists as too accommodating to the West.

Yevgeny Maksimovich Primakov was born on Oct 29, 1929 in Kiev, Ukraine but grew up in Tbilisi, Georgia. Educated at the prestigious Moscow Institute of Oriental Studies, Primakov worked for the state broadcasting and television services from 1953 to 1962. He joined the Communist Party in 1959. He was a correspondent for Pravda in Cairo, Egypt during 1962-70 as deputy editor of the Asia and Africa desk. He was the deputy director of world economics and international relations at the Soviet (now Russian) Academy of Sciences from 1970 to 1977 and was made the director in 1985. He headed the Moscow Institute of Oriental Studies from 1977 to 1985 and analyzed international affairs as a member of a circle of progressive foreign policy advisers to Leonid Brezhnev in the 1970s. Elected to the Congress of People's Deputies in 1989, he was a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party during 1989-91 and of the Politburo during 1989-90 and was recruited by Gorbachev to help institute perestroika, or restructuring.

As Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's special envoy to the Persian Gulf during 1990-91, he tried to persuade Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein to withdraw from Kuwait shortly before the Persian Gulf War. Primakov was one of the few aides to warn Gorbachev of a brewing hard-liner coup attempt, and when the putsch took place in August 1991 Primakov stood by Gorbachev and declared it illegal. Despite his ties to Gorbachev, he seamlessly maneuvered into the administration of Russian President Boris Yeltsin, becoming the head of the foreign intelligence service until his appointment as foreign minister in 1996. A speaker of English and Arabic, Primakov is assumed to have worked for the KGB since the 1950s when he reported for Pravda.

Since his appointment as foreign minister, Primakov has struck a more assertive tone in international relations in keeping with the nationalist political climate in Russia as June 1996 presidential elections approached. Primakov is expected to focus on building Russia's influence in the Middle East, his former area of expertise, and on improving Russia's relations with the former Soviet republics, such as Ukraine, an endeavor long neglected by his predecessor.

[Sources: International Who's Who; The New York Times]

LOAD-DATE: February 18, 1998