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Russia's Diplomatic Riddle
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06/16/2009Victor Chernomyrdin, Russia’s long-serving ambassador to Ukraine, was relieved of his duties last week on an order from President Dmitry Medvedev. His successor is not yet known, but it is thought that the new man will be briefed to be both tougher and more polite in representing Russia’s interests in Kiev. But whoever fills Chernomyrdin’s shoes, they are unlikely to be any more successful in harnessing Ukraine’s fractious politicians to Russian interests.
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CHERNOMYRDIN, Viktor Stepanovich
Former Prime-Minister of Russia, Russian Ambassador to Ukraine
06/29/2009
Viktor Stepanovich Chernomyrdin (Виктор Степанович Черномырдин) was born April 9 1938 in Cherny Ostrog, Orenburg region. Prime Minister of Russia from 1992 to 1998, he also served as Russian ambassador to Ukraine. Chernomyrdin died November 3, 2010.
Chernomyrdin became a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) in 1961. In 1966, he graduated from the Kuybyshev Industrial Institute, and then worked for the CPSU in Orsk, Orenburg region, between 1967 and 1973. He was director of a gas refining plant in Orenburg in the mid to late 1970s before taking up a position at the CPSU Central Committee’s heavy industry department in 1978.
In 1982, Chernomyrdin was appointed deputy minister of the natural gas industries of the Soviet Union. From 1983 he also directed Glavtyumengazprom, a natural gas development organization in Tyumen region. From 1985 to 1989, he was the minister of gas industries. When Gazprom was created from the Ministry of Oil and Gas in 1989, Chernomyrdin was elected its chairman.
In May 1992, then-president Boris Yeltsin appointed Chernomyrdin deputy prime minister in charge of fuel and energy. In December of the same year he was appointed prime minister.
Viktor Chernomyrdin remained prime minister until 1998 when he was dismissed. During his time as prime minister, Chernomyrdin led a failed attempt in 1995 to make the Our Home-Russia movement the central group in the Russian parliament. He was also acting president of the Russian Federation for 23 hours on 6 November 1996, while Boris Yeltsin underwent heart surgery. In the wake of Russia’s financial crisis in 1998, he was reappointed prime minister by Yeltsin, but the Duma did not confirm his appointment.
In May 2001, Vladimir Putin appointed Chernomyrdin Russia's ambassador to Ukraine. This action was interpreted by some Russian media as a move to distance Chernomyrdin from the centre of Russian politics.
In 2003, he caused controversy when he dismissed talk of a Russian apology for the Holodomor, the famine that affected Ukraine and other parts of the Soviet Union in 1932 to 1933.
In February 2009 Chernomyrdin again strained relations between Ukraine and Russia when he said that "it is impossible to come to an agreement on anything with the Ukrainian leadership. If different people come in, we?ll see," as reported by the Ukrainian news agency UNIAN. The Ukrainian foreign ministry threatened to declare Chernomyrdin "persona non grata" over the row.
On June 11, 2009, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev relieved Chernomyrdin of his duties as Russian Ambassador in Kiev, and appointed him "presidential adviser and special presidential representative on economic cooperation with CIS member countries".
Chernomyrdin was married and had two sons. He died on November 3, 2010.
BBC News, Ukraine demands 'genocide' marked, November 25, 2005
Unian News Agency, Russia warns it will hit back if Ukraine expels envoys - reports, February 18, 2009
RIA Novosti, Chernomyrdin dismissed as Russian ambassador to Ukraine, June 11, 2009
