Zurabov Mikhail Yurievich, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to Ukraine: biography

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:41

Zurabov Mikhail Yurievich has occupied many high positions in his life, but the most memorable, perhaps, is the period of his leadership of the Pension Fund. It also fell to his difficult lot to represent the interests of our state on Ukrainian soil during the coup on the Maidan and the civil war. Since the beginning of 2010, he has been Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to this former fraternal Soviet republic.

List of positions previously held by Zurabov

Before his appointment as ambassador, Zurabov was an adviser to the Russian president in the period from 2008 to 2009 (at that time this post was held by D. Medvedev). A year earlier, he was an adviser to the previous head of state - V. V. Putin.

From 2004 to 2007 he was the Minister for He alth and Social Development of the Russian Federation. In the period from 2000 to 2004 he was the chairman of the Pension Fund.

1999 - work as an adviser in the field of social issues to the Russian President B. N. Yeltsin.

1998 - Deputy Minister of He alth of Russia.

He was one of the main founders of the Max insurance companies and"Max M".

1990 - 1992 - director of "Konversbank".

Zurabov Mikhail Yurievich has the title of candidate of economic sciences. He was the main initiator, and then the direct executor of reforms in the pension and medical sectors, as well as the monetization of preferential payments.

Mikhail Zurabov, biography

The future statesman was born on 11/3/1953 in the northern capital. In the family of a high-ranking officer of the Ministry of the Navy of the Soviet Union Zurabov Yuri Grigoryevich and Engelina Robertovna, a microbiologist, doctor of biological sciences.

Father was engaged in the development of international space systems for the emergency rescue of ships and aircraft "Compass-Sarsat".

Zurabov Mikhail Yuryevich, whose parents' nationality sometimes caused various insinuations in the press, until 1970 he studied at a specialized physical and mathematical school No. 239, then entered one of the faculties of the Leningrad Institute of Water Transport, from where he transferred to Moscow Institute of Management to economic cybernetics, where he studied until 1975.

In 1981, he completed his postgraduate studies (Institute for System Research of the State Committee for Science and Technology). He became a candidate of economic sciences only in 1982 already at the Research Institute "Orgtekhstroy-11".

Start in employment

Immediately after graduating from the Moscow Institute of Management, Mikhail Zurabov got a job as an assistant, and a little later as an engineer, at the Faculty of Economic Cybernetics at the same educational institution.

From 1981 to 1982 he worked as a teacher in the classrooms of the Moscow Assembly College, then headed the industry laboratory at the Research and Design Institute for Assembly Technology.

In 1986, he traveled as an installation specialist to Chernobyl for liquidation work. There he met Yevgeny Adamov, a leading nuclear scientist, who at that time was the director of the Research and Design Institute for Energy Engineering, and later appointed to the post of minister in charge of the allied nuclear industry.

Some media outlets note that Zurabov, as an economist - a cybernetician, has since 1988 held the post of deputy director for economics at the Mospromtekhmontazh trust on the recommendation of Adamov.

Working at Converse Bank

Since 1990, the direction of his work has changed somewhat. The Ministry of Atomic Energy of the Soviet Union established Konversbank in 1989, where Mikhail Zurabov was appointed head a year later.

The bank served representatives of the subsidiaries of the Ministry of Atomic Industry, and it was also created to support Soviet nuclear conversion programs.

A year later, the management of foreign exchange financial transactions in this bank was headed by Zurabov's younger brother, Alexander, who later, from 1996 to 1999, was chairman of the board of directors for a year"MENATEPA", and in 2003 he headed the board of directors of "Aeroflot".

Working in the medical field

Since 1992, Zurabov started creating the Max insurance company, which he began to lead. According to reports, E. Adamov also became one of the founders of this structure.

Since 1994, Zurabov also became the head of the Max M medical insurance company.

The Moscow government gave the company several government contracts in 1996, in particular, for preferential housing insurance.

Since 1997, this company has received the rights of the general insurer of the Ministry of Atomic Industry.

Since May 1998, Zurabov was appointed First Deputy Minister for He alth to the Cabinet of Ministers headed by Sergei Kiriyenko.

Many again saw in the promotion of Zurabov to this position the patronage of E. Adamov, who is the Minister of the Russian nuclear industry in this cabinet.

After the Cabinet of Ministers was headed by Yevgeny Primakov, Zurabov had to leave the government in October 1998.

In November 1998, he became an adviser to Russian President Yeltsin in charge of social issues.

Management of the Pension Fund

Since May 2000, Zurabov has headed the Pension Fund of Russia. He led the implementation of the pension reform, which began in 2002.

The result of this was the replacement of the pay-as-you-go pension system with a funded one, when a significant part ofpension funds got the opportunity to be transferred to a private company for further management.

Experts and the media assessed the result of reforming the pension system very negatively. There was a rather low percentage of participation in it of ordinary Russians.

Return to government

M. Fradkov, who became the head of the government, in March 2004 again appointed Zurabov to the post of minister, entrusting him with the he alth care and social development of the country.

At the initiative of Zurabov, since 2005, the country began monetization of benefits: the replacement of benefits in kind with monetary compensation. Federal Law No. 122 of 2004 served as the legislative basis for this reform

The implementation of the monetization mechanism was met with a very mixed reception by the society. At the beginning of 2005, there was a wave of protest actions, both spontaneous and organized. Not only the opposition forces opposed the reforms, but also ordinary citizens.

The press often made accusations against Zurabov that he was lobbying the interests of the commercial structures involved in the insurance and medical business in which he previously worked.

For example, the opinion was expressed that during the implementation of the program for additional drug provision by the state, medicines were purchased from companies related to Zurabov. Moreover, the cost of the medicine was often higher than the market price.

Arrest of Zurabov's partners

Fall 2006arrested former Zurabov's partner Andrey Taranov, who was his deputy in the Max company from 1994 to 1998, and then became the director of the Compulsory He alth Insurance Fund. He took the last position, presumably, under the patronage of Zurabov.

The prosecutor's office charged Taranov with taking bribes and misappropriating budget funds.

In addition to Taranov, his deputies were arrested: Dmitry Shilyaev, Natalya Klimova, Dmitry Usenko and the fund's chief accountant Galina Bykova.

When the leadership of the Mandatory Medical Insurance Fund, controlled by Zurabov, was arrested, some deputies and public figures recommended that he voluntarily resign, but he did not resign.

A new wave of criticism

In the beginning of 2007, the deputies again began to sharply criticize Zurabov. Due to errors in the process of planning the budget for the program of additional drug provision, many beneficiaries could not receive expensive medicines. Among them were many people with serious illnesses.

The Minister also proposed such a mechanism for the pension scheme, which some experts called "theft of finances from ordinary citizens".

In April 2007, the State Duma gave an unsatisfactory assessment of the work of Minister Zurabov and came up with a proposal to divide his ministry into a department for he alth and social development.

At the same time, the United Russia faction managed to block the idea of resignationminister.

Taking into account the fact that Fradkov made a request to deprive the entire Cabinet of Ministers of his powers, Zurabov moved to the category of Acting Minister on September 12, 2007.

The Prime Minister justified this request with the intention of giving the head of state more freedom in personnel decisions in anticipation of the upcoming election campaigns.

Putin's resignation was accepted, but he asked government members to temporarily remain in their posts.

In the new composition of the Cabinet of Ministers, headed by V. Zubkov, Zurabov was replaced by Tatiana Golikova, who previously worked as First Deputy of the Ministry of Finance.

Appointment to new positions

Since October 2007, Zurabov was appointed to the post of presidential adviser. It is noteworthy that there were no official reports about this.

After the re-election of the president in 2008, the new head of state, Dmitry Medvedev, reappointed Zurabov to the post of his adviser.

In 2009, Viktor Chernomyrdin left his embassy post in Ukraine. Since 2010, the Russian ambassador to Ukraine has been Mikhail Zurabov. At the same time, he received the appointment of a special presidential representative, designed to develop trade and economic relations between the two states.

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary

From the side of the deputies of parliament Zurabov's accusations of poor competence in his post are periodically heard. The Duma faction of communists stated that nothing was done on its part to timely prevent the strengthening of anti-Russian sentiments in the oncesister republic.

The role of Mikhail Zurabov in the Maidan in Ukraine was assessed from the negative side.

Deputies Valery Rashkin and Sergey Obukhov in March 2015 requested the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to make a proposal to the head of state to remove Zurabov from the post of ambassador.

In their parliamentary request, they not only seriously criticize the work of the ambassador, but also declare the failure of the Russian political course in Ukraine.

In December 2015, the media reported that the Ukrainian side unexpectedly noted a manifestation of concern for the Russian after, in particular, proposals were sent to Russia through diplomatic channels to expand its powers, although relations between the countries remain extremely tense.

Poroshenko allegedly wanted Mikhail Zurabov (ambassador to Ukraine) to be included in the negotiating contact group from the Russian side instead of Azamat Kulmukhamedov.

Some political analysts see the reason for this in the low efficiency of the current Russian ambassador, which suits the Ukrainian leadership. Not only was he unable to respond in advance to the onset of the second Maidan and the coup. Information appears in the press that for a long period of time, events called "ambassadorial evenings" were held, which were financed by the Ukrainian president, where, under the guise of historical discussions, representatives of the liberal Russian opposition met withUkrainian nationalists, initiated by Mikhail Zurabov. The nationality, religion of the participants in these meetings did not matter, but everyone necessarily had a one-sided worldview that justified the events taking place in Ukraine.

According to unconfirmed reports, with the patronage of Poroshenko, Zurabov has something like a pharmacy business.

Marital status of Zurabov

Zurabov Mikhail has a big family. The field of activity of the wife of Yulia Anatolyevna is the import of medical equipment and medicines.

Besides their own son and daughter, the Zurabovs are raising a child whom they adopted in 2006 at the age of two.