Mikhail Kasyanov is a well-known domestic politician and statesman. Currently, he is in opposition to the existing government, leading the PARNAS party. In the early 2000s, he served as chairman of the Russian government for four years. According to analysts, he is considered one of the most effective prime ministers in the history of Russia. At the same time, a number of experts and economists negatively assess his activities, especially in the last two years as Prime Minister. Has been in opposition to the country's leadership since 2005.
Childhood and youth
Mikhail Kasyanov was born in 1957 in the Moscow region in the small village of Solntsevo. His parents were classic Soviet intellectuals. His father is a math teacher and director of a local school, and his mother is an economist. The hero of our article was the youngest child in the family, had two sisters - Tatyana and Irina.
The school teachers remembered Mikhail Kasyanova serious and diligent student, who was distinguished by high academic performance. A brilliant certificate of secondary education allowed him to enter the Automobile and Road Institute in the capital without any problems. But after the first two courses, the studies had to be interrupted. Mikhail Kasyanov went to serve in the army.
For outstanding external and physical data, he was accepted into the Kremlin regiment, which was stationed in Moscow. Returning to the "citizen", the hero of our article began to work at a research institute under the Gosstroy of the USSR. He was promoted to Senior Technician. Soon he was promoted to engineer and transferred to the GSFSR State Planning Committee.
In 1981, Mikhail Mikhailovich Kasyanov returned to the university to complete his higher education. A few years later, he received a degree in civil engineering.
He decided not to stop there. He passed the Higher Economic Courses under the State Planning Commission, which allowed him to move quite quickly up the career ladder in the future. Soon he became the head of the department of foreign economic relations of the State Planning Commission. It is noteworthy that during the same period, his mother worked in the same department as a senior economist.
Political activities
A sharp turn in the biography of Mikhail Kasyanov was facilitated by the collapse of the Soviet Union. When this happened, the State Committee for Economics was promptly abolished, and the Ministry of Economy and Finance took its place, headed by the well-known young reformer Yegor Gaidar.
Mikhail Mikhailovich Kasyanov worked in his department as deputy head of the foreign economic activity department.
In the future, his career progression continued. In 1993, the future prime minister became the head of a department in the Russian Ministry of Finance. In this position, he manifests himself as a purposeful and highly professional employee, which is noted by all managers. One of his main achievements of that time was the restructuring of the public debt of the collapsed Soviet Union. He masterfully managed to resolve issues with Western creditors, for which he was especially highly appreciated.
In particular, Mikhail Kasyanov, whose photo is in this article, at that time agreed with an unofficial organization of creditor banks known as the London Club to restructure Russian debt. The $32.5 billion payment was stretched over the next quarter of a century with a seven-year grace period. Kasyanov's achievements were highly appreciated, he was appointed Deputy Minister of Finance.
International debts
In 1998, his experience of negotiations with Western partners was needed again. The politician became the head of the working group on the restructuring of the Russian external debt. It was necessary to take urgent measures in a country that was hit by a deep economic crisis. Then a default struck in Russia.
In this situation, Mikhail Kasyanov, whose biography this article is devoted to, again showed himself in all its glory. He managed to reach an understanding with creditors, reschedule payments,minimize interest rates and pen alties. After this success, he received another promotion. Now Kasyanov is already the First Deputy Minister of Finance of the Russian Federation.
At that time, he was considered one of the few high-ranking government officials who really understood the economic situation in the country, had a good idea of what needs to be done, how to act in this situation. Therefore, it was decided to appoint him in parallel to another position - Deputy Governor from Russia in the European Bank. Also, the hero of our article is among the representatives of the Supervisory Board of the Russian Development Bank.
At the head of the ministry
Kasyanov's career growth was progressive, but for many it was still a surprise that he was appointed finance minister in 1999. It is worth noting that Kasyanov himself, according to people who knew him well, was not happy with this promotion. At that moment, the Russian budget was barely making ends meet, the position of Minister of Finance could well be regarded as a firing squad.
However, the politician was full of ambition, he decided not to be afraid of difficulties, taking on this difficult and heavy burden.
After coming to power of the new President Vladimir Putin, who replaced Boris Yeltsin, Kasyanov retained the portfolio of the Minister of Finance. In parallel, he was asked to begin acting as prime minister of Russia until the head of state decided on a new head of government. As a result, Putin decided not to change anything and approved him inpremier positions.
Activities as head of the Cabinet
One of Kasyanov's first projects as prime minister was a plan for full-scale reforms of the entire system of executive authorities, primarily at the federal level. In 2002, the project was approved and approved by Vladimir Putin. Experts also associate the introduction of key provisions of the power industry reform, the tax reform, which led to a significant reduction in value added tax, with the figure of Kasyanov.
The new prime minister had many other promising projects. For example, it was he who initiated the transfer of Russian military units to a contract basis, which greatly increased the combat capability of the Russian army. Under him, a reform of the housing and communal sector was carried out, which caused acute discontent among some political parties, which even passed a vote of no confidence in the head of government because of it. However, the vote failed, the deputies of the State Duma could not collect the necessary number of votes for the resignation of the prime minister. Kasyanov himself simply ignored the parliament's attempt to dismiss him, not appearing at the decisive vote.
However, the successes achieved by Kasyanov in his post did not allow him to keep the premier's chair after Putin's re-election for a second term. The head of government was dismissed.
According to one of the conspiracy theories, the reason could be a possible conspiracy between Kasyanov and Nemtsov, who were going to oppose the re-election of the head of state. By length of stayAs a prime minister in modern Russia, Kasyanov occupies fourth place. He held this position for three years, nine months and one day, second only to Dmitry Medvedev, Vladimir Putin and Viktor Chernomyrdin.
Instead of Kasyanov, Viktor Khristenko was appointed acting prime minister, and then Mikhail Fradkov was appointed head of government.
In opposition
Kasyanov himself claims that after his resignation from the post of prime minister, Vladimir Putin offered him to become secretary of the Security Council, but he refused, saying that he was ready to take only an elected position.
Already in February 2005, about a year after his dismissal, he made public statements about the slowdown in economic growth in Russia. Since then, Kasyanov has criticized the government at every opportunity. He accused the Russian authorities of restoring the Soviet system with hints of capitalism. In particular, this is how he assessed the cancellation of the gubernatorial elections and the increase in the threshold for parliamentary parties to seven percent.
He also constantly stated that there is no real separation of powers in the country, there is no freedom of speech, an independent judiciary, and private property is not protected. All this made him join the liberal opposition.
At first, Kasyanov became a member of the "Russian People's Democratic Union", participated in the "March of Dissent", conducted independent consultations on legal and financial issues. He even set up his own websitehis critical articles and current news about the current state of affairs in the country were regularly published.
In 2007, he led the People for Democracy and Justice party. He even announced his intention to run for president of the Russian Federation in 2008. However, he was denied registration by the Central Electoral Committee due to insufficient number of signature sheets collected by the candidate.
In 2009, Kasyanov released a journalistic work en titled "Without Putin. Political dialogues with Yevgeny Kiselev." On the pages of the book, journalist Kiselev and Kasyanov discuss the current state of affairs in the country. They delve into the Soviet past, analyze the changes that have taken place over the past century. Assessing the presidential elections of 1996, the so-called "Yukos case" against Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the fate of independent television, the default that befell the country, they are trying to understand whether there was an opportunity to change something so that the country began to develop along a different path.
PARNAS Party
In 2010, Kasyanov reiterated that he had no hope of running for the presidency. To do this, he takes part in the organization of the coalition "For Russia without arbitrariness and corruption", which will soon be transformed into the Party of People's Freedom, known as "PARNAS". Boris Nemtsov, Vladimir Ryzhkov, Vladimir Milov become associates of the hero of our article.
However, the first time to register the party in the Ministryjustice fails. As a result of the check, a large number of "dead souls" were found in its ranks.
Kasyanov becomes the leader of PARNAS, already in this status he continues to criticize the Russian authorities. In particular, he constantly accuses top management of undemocratic governance. At the same time, he supports the position of Western countries regarding Russia, in particular, he welcomes the introduction of anti-Russian sanctions.
Also, the oppositionist does not approve of the policy that Russia is pursuing in Ukraine, opposes the annexation of Crimea, considers it wrong for Moscow to support the conflict in Donbass.
Elections to the State Duma
In 2016, Kasyanov's party "PARNAS" still manages to register with the Ministry of Justice, it is even allowed to participate in the elections to the State Duma.
True, during the election campaign, Kasyanov becomes the victim of several provocations, exposing documentaries are released on the central channels of the country, in which the politician is denounced, accusing him of insincerity.
As a result, the results of "PARNAS" are unsatisfactory. The party takes only 11th place after the vote count. She receives the support of only 0.73% of voters. She fails to overcome the 5% threshold to enter the federal parliament.
Private life
Kasyanov's wife's name is Irina Borisova. They have been together almost all their lives, they have known each other since school. Irina is a graduate of the Faculty of Economics of Moscow State University, taught political economy, is currentlya simple pensioner.
Mikhail Kasyanov's daughter was born in 1984. Her name is Natalya Klinovskaya. She graduated from the Faculty of Political Science of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations. In 2006, she married the son of Andrey Klinovsky, co-founder of the Epicenter Market company. Mikhail Kasyanov's daughter Natalya has two children. These are girls who were born in 2007 and 2009.
In 2005, the youngest daughter of Mikhail Kasyanov, Alexander Kasyanov, was born. She is now a schoolgirl.
Where Mikhail Kasyanov lives is not known for certain, we can only say that he is constantly in Moscow.
Office Romance
On the eve of the elections to the State Duma, a documentary film "Kasyanov's Day" was shown on the NTV channel. It showed intimate scenes filmed with a hidden camera. Allegedly, Mikhail Kasyanov and Natalya Pelevina, a member of the PARNAS party, are participating in them.
The lovers have conversations on various topics, including discussing the affairs of the opposition and the situation in their own party. In particular, the politician speaks negatively about some supporters. For example, Mikhail Kasyanov discusses Alexei Navalny with Natalya Pelevina.
After the release of this scandalous picture on the screens, the deputy chairman of PARNAS, Ilya Yashin, even raised the question of trust in the hero of our article, offering to deny him the first place on the federal party list. However, members of the same party did not support this proposal. It is safe to say that the videowhich presumably Mikhail Kasyanov and Pelevina had a negative impact on his personal ratings, on the attitude of the people towards the party itself.
Now Kasyanov is 60 years old. He continues to be in the liberal opposition, but lately he has hardly appeared in the information field, he does not make any statements.
At the same time, he is regularly subjected to provocations and attacks. For example, in February 2017, during a march in memory of Boris Nemtsov in Moscow, an unknown person once again doused him with green paint.
