Engology,Engineer Chernomyrdin - Prime Minister of Russia,

Russian Prime Minister Viktor S. Chernomyrdin

Curriculum Vitae and Profile

Viktor Stepanovich Chernomyrdin

Russian Prime Minister

4 Staraya Pl., Moscow

phone: 7-095-206-46-69 (inquiries)

7-095-206-51-46 (office)

Born: Orenburg Region village, 09 April 1938

1966: graduated from the Kuibyshev Polytechnical Institute, engineering.

1957-1960: fitter, then engine-operator/chief of technological

installation at the Orsk gas-processing plant. Also served in the Soviet

Army.

1961: Joined CPSU (member until 1991)

1967: instructor, deputy head, head of industry department at the CPSU

city committee

1972: All-Union Postal Correspondent Polytechnical Institute,

engineer-economist by specialty. Candidate of technology.

1973-1978: Deputy Chief Engineer and director of Olenburg Gas Plant

1978: Instructor of the heavy industry Department, CPSU Central Committee

apparatus.

1982-1985: Chief of all-Union production and gas exploitation of USSR gas

industry; concurrently headed Glavtyumengasprom All-Union Production

Association

1987-1989: Deputy in USSR Supreme Soviet

1989-1992: Chairman of Board of Directors of Gazprom

1992, May: Appointed Deputy Prime Minister of Ministry of Fuel and Energy

1992, December: Prime Minister of the Government of the Russian Federation

1995, April: took charge of "Our Home is Russia", a new electoral bloc

Family: Married with two children. His junior son is a student, the elder

son works in gas-processing industry. He has one granddaughter

Honors: Order of the October Revolution, Order of the Red Banner of Labor

and Badge of Honor

Hobbies: Accordion

Mr. Chernomyrdin was brought into the Cabinet of the acting Prime Minister,

Yegor T. Gaidar, in May 1992 with two other industrialists as an attempt to

broaden Mr. Gaidar's Government of young, Westernized economists and

appease outraged managers of state enterprises, who were struggling with

the end of a centralized, command economy and the collapse of the Soviet

Union.

He has been characterized as a strong, experienced administrator who ran a

vital industry with wide international contacts, but who was no Communist

Party hack. Aleksandr S. Dzhasokhov, a legislator and former Politburo

member who served with Mr. Chernomyrdin commented that "He's a practical

man, no theoretician, who ran a vast industry and who was the first to turn

his ministry into a business concern." His biography follows the classic

pattern of any middle aged careerist Communist, but Mr. Chernomyrdin views

himself as much more of an industrial technocrat than the typical ideologue

of the previous era. He likes to project himself as a practitioner, a hard

worker who rolls up his sleeves and values loyalty above any other virtue.

Viktor Stepanovich began his tenure as Russia's Premier by tempering the

radical reforms that characterized the Gaidar period. He commented that the

priorities of his reforms differ somewhat from his predecessor, focusing on

reversing the decline in Russia's industrial production. In his own words,

"No reform will work if we destroy industry completely."

His appointment as Prime Minister was viewed with skepticism by observers

both inside and outside Russia. Mikhail Leontiev, a columnist for the

weekly Moscow News, commented that "He's a fantastic gas professional, but

he's also a person who's classically incapable of being a prime minister.

He doesn't think in economic terms." Commenting on Chernomyrdin's tenure as

head of Gazprom, Leontiev said that Gazprom "is an enormous concern and it

works successfully, but it works like an empire. It's run purely

administratively." At the onset of his tenure as Prime Minister, many

Russian Lawmakers as well as Western diplomats and economists feared that

Chernomyrdin's pro-industrial penchant would lead to an opening of Russia's

credit tap, and thereby exacerbate inflation from 25%-30% per month to a

hyperinflation of 50% per month. These concerns were not unfounded; Mr.

Chernomyrdin's first act as Prime Minister was to provide large new

subsidies to the energy sector, followed by price and profit controls on

many basic food items and vodka.

President Yeltsin began to succumb to poor health and depression after the

shelling of Parliament in October 1993 and opposition gains in

parliamentary elections in December of that year. At this time, Mr.

Chernomyrdin established himself as Russia's de facto governor. During

this period, Chernomyrdin elucidated his policy priorities, expressing a

need for revision of Russia's law on privatization and advocating further

state support for factories and the energy industry, and stricter state

control over energy, food and science. More revealingly, he said Russia

still needed Gosplan -- the old State Planning Committee that controlled

the formerly centralized economy -- "but in a slightly different form." He

promised to spend billions of dollars to subsidize the agricultural sector,

a course which would inevitably push inflation higher and slow the

privatization of Russian farms.

As a representative of their ranks, Mr. Chernomyrdin serves as a reliable

figure for the nations real power structure -- the directors of large state

or newly privatized enterprises, collective farms and the bureaucratic

bosses who continue to run the country while appealing to Moscow for a

continuation of favors, credits and subsidies. These close ties between

Mr. Chernomyrdin and Russia's industrial elites are illustrated by the fact

that he had a direct telephone line to Gazprom installed in his government

office in order to carefully guard the concern's interests.

The Russian newspaper Rossiskye Vesti illustrated the cozy relations

between government and big business that characterize Chernomyrdin's

government by exposing that the Prime Minister liquidated the 2.6 billion

ruble ($1.7 million US) debt of the Promstroibank (Industrial Construction

Development Bank), run by an old Oil and Gas Ministry colleague, and

granted the bank a loan of 15 billion rubles ($9.7 million US) for 10 years

at 20 percent annual interest, while inflation at the time was around 20

percent per month and rising.

However, Mr. Chernomyrdin eventually came to the view shared by Russia's

radical reformers and Western creditors, reversing himself on most economic

issues. In fact, since January 1994 he has favored and largely instituted a

tight-money, low-inflation policy that has won him support from Washington

and the International Monetary Fund. Chernomyrdin's economic policies were

ultimately vindicated in July, 1995, when Russia's monthly inflation rate

dipped to 0.7 percent. This is considered to be one of Russia's top

economic achievements since the inception of reforms.

During his key role in negotiating the release of hundreds of Russian taken

hostage in Budyonnovsk by Chechen rebels in June, 1995, Mr. Chernomyrdin

transformed himself from a colorless Soviet-style manager to an anguished

statesman in the eyes of the Russian people. He also become the main

interlocutor between the United States and Russia on key issues in this

strained, politicized time, through the US.-Russian Joint Commission on

Economic and Technological Cooperation, also known as the Gore-Chernomyrdin

Commission.

The Clinton administration has long viewed Chernomyrdin as a stabilizing

force in Russian politics, a man with whom it can do business should

Yeltsin's health problems force his retirement. The White House has done

what it can to bolster Chernomyrdin's stature, although polls suggest

that his popularity inside Russia badly trails Alexander Lebed, the retired

general and former Yeltsin security adviser.

Chernomyrdin also heads the center-right "Our Home is Russia" bloc, which

is favored by President Yeltsin and has been joined by government ministers

and influential regional bosses. Chernomyrdin's support in the influential

financial and industrial groups is evidenced by the bloc's endorsement by

Vladimir Medvedev, the head of the Union of Oil and Gas Industrialists and

of the rival bloc, "Regions of Russia." Medvedev cast his support behind

Chernomyrdin's "Our Home," stating that the bloc would contribute to

stability and help the fuel and energy sector climb out of crisis.

Most recently, the security of Mr. Chernomyrdin's position as Prime

Minister was taken into question by the Russian media. This speculation

was dispelled in Boris Yeltsin's annual address to Parliament on March 6,

1997. Although Yeltsin confirmed that there would soon be changes made in

the government, he implied that Chernomyrdin would continue to head the

government by mentioning that the Premier would soon embark on a series of

foreign missions to China, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Viktor S . Chernomyrdin

Engineer and

Prime Minister of Russia