Sergey Kiriyenko

Sergey Kiriyenko Серге́й Кирие́нко
First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Administration of Russia
Incumbent
Assumed office 5 October 2016
President	Vladimir Putin
Preceded by	Vyacheslav Volodin
31st Prime Minister of Russia
In office 23 March 1998 – 23 August 1998
President	Boris Yeltsin
Preceded by	Viktor Chernomyrdin
Succeeded by	Viktor Chernomyrdin (Acting)
First Deputy Prime Minister of Russia
In office 23 March 1998 – 24 April 1998
Prime Minister	Himself acting PM
Preceded by	Boris Nemtsov
Succeeded by	Yuri Maslyukov
Personal details
Born	Sergey Vladilenovich Izraitel (1962-07-26) 26 July 1962 Sukhumi, Abkhazian ASSR, Georgian SSR
Political party	Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1980s–1991) Independent (1991–1998) Union of Right Forces (1998–2008)
Spouse(s)	Maria V. Kiriyenko
Children	Vladimir Lyubov Nadezhda

Sergey Vladilenovich Kiriyenko (Russian: Серге́й Владиле́нович Кирие́нко; born 26 July 1962) is a Russian statesman and politician. He served as the 31st Prime Minister of Russia from 23 March to 23 August 1998 under President Boris Yeltsin. Between 2005 and 2016 he was the head of Rosatom, the state nuclear energy corporation.

Early life

Sergei Kiriyenko's grandfather, Yakov Israitel, made his name as a devoted communist and member of the Cheka,^[1] and Vladimir Lenin awarded him with an inscribed pistol for his good service to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

Sergei Kiriyenko, son of a Jewish father,^[2] was born in Sukhumi, the capital of the Abkhazian ASSR, and grew up in Sochi, in southern Russia. He adopted Ukrainian surname of his mother.^[2] After graduation from high school, Kiriyenko enrolled in the shipbuilding faculty at the Nizhny Novgorod (Gorky) Water Transport Engineers Institute, where his divorced father taught.

Prime Minister

Kiriyenko was appointed Prime Minister after the dismissal of Viktor Chernomyrdin's Second Cabinet. The State Duma, dominated by the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, twice refused to confirm his appointment but president Boris Yeltsin nominated him a third time and Kiriyenko was confirmed.

Along with Deputy Prime minister Boris Nemtsov and Anatoly Chubais, Kirienko became known as one of "young reformists". They tried to improve the Russia's economy using International Monetary Fund credits, and it elevated the national debt to the level of $22.6 billion.

Kirienko's cabinet defaulted the GKO-OFZ government bond coupons which led to devaluation of the Russian ruble and 1998 Russian financial crisis. Responsible for the crisis, the prime minister resigned on 23 August.

Libel lawsuit

In 2004 Novaya Gazeta printed seven articles by columnist Georgy Rozhnov, which accused Kiriyenko of embezzling US$4.8 billion of International Monetary Fund funds in 1998 when he was Prime Minister of Russia.^[3] The newspaper based the accusations on a letter allegedly written to Colin Powell and signed by US Congressmen Philip Crane, Mike Pence, Charlie Norwood, Dan Burton and Henry Bonilla and posted on the website of the American Defense Council.^[4] The newspaper went on to claim that Kiriyenko had used some of the embezzled funds to purchase real estate in the United States. The Moscow newspaper, The eXile, announced it had sent the letter as a prank, but later claimed that this had been a joke.^[4][5] In response, Kiriyenko sued Novaya Gazeta and Rozhnov for libel,^[5] and in passing judgement in favour of Kiriyenko the court ordered Novaya Gazeta to retract all publications relating to the accusations, and noted "Novaya gazeta’s content on the missing IMF funds include a great deal of unproven information" and also went on to say that the newspaper "is obliged to publish only officially proven information linking Mr Kiriyenko with embezzlement."^[3]

Formation of SPS

Together with Boris Nemtsov, and Irina Hakamada, Kirienko formed the Union of the Right forces. The party finished fourth on 1999 elections.

Rosatom

Kiriyenko, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping, 2010

Kirienko was appointed to head Rosatom, the Federal Atomic Energy Agency, on November 30, 2005.^[6] He is also chairman of the board of directors of the vertically integrated Atomenergoprom nuclear company.^[7]

He said on 18 September 2006 while in Vienna, that the reactor in the Bushehr nuclear plant in Iran should be operational by September 2007 and the plant itself will be active in November 2007. He advocated President Vladimir Putin's idea of creating an international system of uranium enrichment centers. A uranium enrichment center could be operational in Russia in 2007.^[8] Responding to a reporter's question, Kiriyenko said that the Bushehr power plant would not affect nuclear non-proliferation and that there was nothing preventing Iran-Russia energy cooperation. The Government of Russia planned to deliver nuclear fuel to the plant in March 2007.^[9] After a delay of some three years, Kiriyenko said 21 August 2010's arrival of nuclear fuel at Iran's Bushehr I marks "an event of crucial importance" that proves that "Russia always fulfills its international obligations." Spent nuclear fuel from the plant will be sent back to Russia.^[10]

See also

• Sergei Kiriyenko's Cabinet

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sergey Kiriyenko.

• Federal agency on atomic energy of Russia