First Person: An Astonishingly Frank Self-Portrait by Russia's President Vladimir Putin

Principle Figures in First Person

VADIM VIKTOROVICH BAKATIN:

USSR interior minister (1988–90); chairman of KGB (1991); presidential candidate.

BORIS ABRAMOVICH BEREZOVSKY:

Prominent businessman influential in political affairs; part-owner of ORT, pro-government public television station; former deputy secretary of Security Council, October 1996—November 1997; involved in the Chechen conflict; appointed executive secretary of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS); dismissed by Yeltsin in March 1999, elected member of parliament from Karachaevo-Cherkessia in December 1999.

PAVEL PAVLOVICH BORODIN:

Chief of staff in the presidential administration from 1993 to 2000; In January 2000, appointed state secretary of the Union of Belarus and Russia.

LEONID ILYICH BREZHNEV:

General secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1964–1982.

ANATOLY BORISOVICH CHUBAIS:

Vice premier in the Chernomyrdin government (1992) and government (1994); appointed member of the government commission handling privatization and structural adjustment in 1993; appointed first deputy chair of the government in 1994 and dismissed by Yeltsin in January 1996; appointed by Yeltsin to post of chief of presidential administration in July 1996; Minister of Finance, March—November 1997.

VLADIMIR CHUROV:

Deputy chair of the Committee for Foreign Liason of the St. Petersburg Mayor’s Office in Sobchak administration.

MICHAEL FROLOV:

Retired colonel, Putin’s instructor at the Andropov Red Banner Institute.

VERA DMITRIEVNA GUREVICH:

Putin’s schoolteacher from grades 4 to 8 in School No. 193 in St. Petersburg.

SERGEI BORISOVICH IVANOV:

Foreign intelligence career officer with rank of lieutenant general; appointed deputy director of FSB in August 1998; appointed secretary of the Security Council in November 1999.

KATYA:

Putin’s younger daughter.

SERGEI VLADILENOVICH KIRIENKO:

First deputy minister of energy in 1997; appointed chair of the government (prime minister) in April 1998 and dismissed by Yeltsin in August 1998, elected member of parliament from the party list of the Union of Right Forces.

ALEKSANDR VASILYEVICH KORZHAKOV:

Hired as Boris Yeltsin’s bodyguard in 1985 when Yeltsin was first secretary of the Moscow City Party Committee and continued to manage Yeltsin’s security in subsequent positions; awarded the rank of general in 1992; joined the Yeltsin election campaign in 1996 and was dismissed from all his posts in June 1996 after disagreements about how to run the campaign.

VLADIMIR ALEKSANDROVICH KRYUCHKOV:

Chairman of the Soviet KGB (1988–91) until arrested for the August 1991 coup; amnestied in February 1994.

YURI LUZHKOV:

Mayor of Moscow.

MASHA:

Putin’s older daughter.

YEVGENY MAKSIMOVICH PRIMAKOV:

Pravda columnist and former director of the USSR Institute of Oriental Studies and the Institute of World Economy and International Relations, first deputy chairman of the KGB (1991), director of the Soviet Central Intelligence Service (1991), and then director of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (1991–1996); appointed Foreign Minister January 1996 and again in 1998; appointed by Yeltsin’s decree to the position of chair of the government (prime minister) in September 1998 and dismissed by Yeltsin from this position in May 1999; elected to the State Duma (parliament) from the party list of Fatherland—All Russia in December 1999.

LYUDMILA PUTINA:

Vladimir Putin’s wife (nicknames found in text: Luda, Ludik).

SERGEI ROLDUGIN:

Lead cellist in the Mariinsky Theater Symphony Orchestra, a friend of the Putins, and godfather of Putin’s older daughter, Masha.

EDUARD AMVROSIEVICH SHEVARDNADZE:

Soviet foreign minister (1985–91) who resigned in protest of the impending coup; co-chairman of Democratic Reform Movement (1991–92); head of state and chairman of parliament of Georgia.

ANATOLY ALEKSANDROVICH SOBCHAK:

Mayor and chair of the government of St. Petersburg (Leningrad) from 1991 to 1996; co-chairman of Democratic Reform Movement (1991–92); member of the Russian Presidential Council since 1992; died in February 2000. His wife is Lyudmila Borisnova.

OLEG NIKOLAYEVICH SOSKOVETS:

Appointed first deputy chair of the government in 1993 (deputy prime minister) responsible for 14 ministries, including energy and transportation; assigned to deal with the Chechen conflict in 1994; joined Yeltsin presidential campaign team in 1996 but dismissed in March from the campaign, and, in June, was relieved of his post as first vice premier.

YURI SKURATOV:

Former Prosecutor General, suspended after a newspaper published a photograph of him in a steam bath with two prostitutes.

VLADIMIR ANATOLYEVICH YAKOVLEV:

First deputy mayor of St. Petersburg from 1993–1996; elected governor of St. Petersburg in 1996.

MARINA YENTALTSEVA:

Putin’s secretary at the St. Petersburg City Council (1991–96).

VALENTIN YUMASHEV:

Chief of staff in the Yeltsin administration

FRG — Federal Republic of Germany

FSB — Federal Security Service

FSK — Federal Counterintelligence Service

FSO — Federal Guard Servic

GDR — German Democratic Republic (East Germany)

KGB — Committee for State Security (Soviet era)

Komsomol — Young Communist League

Kukly — Puppets, a satirical TV show

MVD — Ministry of Internal Affairs or Interior Ministry

NATO — North Atlantic Treaty Organization

NKVD — People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs, or the Stalin-era secret police

OSCE — Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, 54-member security and human rights body founded in 1975.

Pioneers — Soviet-era children’s organization

SED — East German Communist Party