Yevgeny Maksimovich Primakov (Russian pronunciation: [jɪvˈɡʲenʲɪj mɐˈksʲiməvʲɪtɕ prʲɪmɐˈkof]; 29 October 1929 – 26 June 2015) was a Russian politician and diplomat who served as Prime Minister of Russia from 1998 to 1999. During his long career, he also served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1996 to 1998, the Director of Foreign Intelligence from 1991 to 1996, and Speaker of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union from 1990 to 1991. Primakov was an academician (Arabist) and a member of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Primakov was born in Kyiv in the Ukrainian SSR, and grew up in Tbilisi in the Georgian SSR.
Primakov's father's surname was Nemchenko. He had been imprisoned in the Gulag during the Stalinist purges. Primakov's mother, Anna Yakovlevna Primakova, was Jewish. She worked as an obstetrician and was a cousin of the physiologist Yakov Kirshenblat.
Primakov was educated at the Moscow Institute of Oriental Studies, graduating in 1953, and carried out postgraduate work at Moscow State University. He graduated with a degree in Arabic.
His grandson is Yevgeny Primakov Jr. (Russian: Евгений Александрович Примаков), a journalist, TV host, politician and diplomat.
From 1956 to 1970, he worked as a journalist for Soviet radio and a Middle Eastern correspondent for Pravda newspaper. During this time, he was sent frequently on intelligence missions to the Middle East and the United States as a KGB co-optee under codename MAKSIM. Primakov reportedly may have been coerced into joining the intelligence services.
As a Senior Researcher at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations, Primakov entered into scientific society in 1962. From 30 December 1970 to 1977, he served as deputy director of the Institute of World Economy and International Relations, part of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union. In this role he participated in the Dartmouth Conferences alongside, among others, Charles Yost. From 1977 to 1985 he was Director of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the USSR Academy of Sciences. During this time he was also First Deputy Chairman of the Soviet Peace Committee. In 1985 he returned to the Institute of World Economy and International Relations, serving as Director until 1989.
Primakov became involved in national politics in 1989, as the Chairman of the Soviet of the Union, one of two chambers of the Soviet parliament. From 1990 until 1991 he was a member of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's Presidential Council of the Soviet Union. He served as Gorbachev's special envoy to Iraq in the run-up to the Persian Gulf War, in which capacity he held talks with President Saddam Hussein to try to convince him to withdraw Iraqi forces from Kuwait.
Foreign intelligence chief (1991–1996)
After the failed August 1991 putsch, Primakov was appointed First Deputy Chairman of the KGB and Director of the KGB First Chief Directorate responsible for foreign intelligence.
After the formation of the Russian Federation, Primakov shepherded the transition of the KGB First Chief Directorate to the control of the Russian Federation government, under the new name Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR). Primakov preserved the old KGB foreign intelligence apparatus under the new SVR label, and led no personnel purges or structural reforms. He served as SVR director from 1991 until 1996.
Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs (1996–1998)
Primakov served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from January 1996 until September 1998. As foreign minister, he gained respect at home and abroad, with a reputation as a tough but pragmatic supporter of Russia's interests and as an opponent of NATO's expansion into the former Eastern Bloc, though on 27 May 1997, after five months of negotiation with NATO Secretary General Javier Solana, Russia signed the Founding Act, which is seen as marking the end of Cold War hostilities. He supported Slobodan Milošević during the Yugoslav Wars.
He was also famously an advocate of multilateralism as an alternative to American global hegemony following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. Primakov called for a Russian foreign policy based on low-cost mediation while expanding influence towards the Middle East and the former Soviet republics. Called the "Primakov doctrine", beginning in 1999, he promoted Russia, India and China, RIC, origin of BRICS as a "strategic triangle" to counterbalance the United States The move was interpreted by some observers as an agreement to fight together against 'colour revolutions' in Central Asia.
Prime Minister of Russia (1998–1999)
After Yeltsin's bid to reinstate Viktor Chernomyrdin as Prime Minister of Russia was blocked by the State Duma in September 1998, the President turned to Primakov as a compromise figure whom he rightly judged would be accepted by the parliament's majority. As prime minister, Primakov was given credit for forcing some very difficult reforms in Russia; most of them, such as the tax reform, became major successes. Following the 1998 harvest, which was the worst in 45 years, coupled with a plummeting ruble, one of Primakov's first actions as prime minister, in October 1998, was to appeal to the United States and Canada for food aid, while also appealing to the European Union for economic relief.
While Primakov's opposition to US unilateralism was popular among some Russians, it also led to a breach with the West during the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, and isolated Russia during subsequent developments in the former Yugoslavia.
On 24 March 1999, Primakov was heading to Washington, D.C. for an official visit. Flying over the Atlantic Ocean, he learned that NATO had started to bomb Yugoslavia. Primakov decided to cancel the visit, ordered the plane to turn around over the ocean and returned to Moscow in a manoeuvre popularly dubbed "Primakov's Loop".