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CHERNOMYRDIN, Viktor Stepanovich
Advisor to the President of the Russian Federation,
Former Prime Minister of the Russian Federation,
Former Russian Ambassador to Ukraine
 Viktor Stepanovich Chernomyrdin (Russian: Ви́ктор Степа́нович Черномы́рдин) was born 9 April 1938. He became a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) in 1961 .
In 1962, he was admitted to the Kuybyshev Industrial Institute (which was later renamed Samara Polytechnic Institute).
In 1982, he was appointed deputy minister of the natural gas industries of the Soviet Union. At the same time, beginning from 1983, he directed Glavtyumengazprom, an industry association for natural gas resource development in Tyumen Oblast. During 1985-1989 he was the Minister of gas industries.
In 1989, when the Ministry of Oil and Gas was converted into the government company Gazprom, Chernomyrdin was elected its chairman.
In May 1992, Boris Yeltsin appointed Chernomyrdin deputy prime minister in charge of fuel and energy.
On 14 December 1992, Chernomyrdin was confirmed by the seventh Congress of People's Deputies of Russia as prime minister of the Russian Federation.
In April 1995, he formed the political group Our Home – Russia, which was aimed at becoming the central force in the parliament, but failed in this, gaining only 10 percent of votes.
Viktor Chernomyrdin was acting president of the Russian Federation for 23 hours on 6 November 1996, while Boris Yeltsin underwent a heart operation. Chernomyrdin remained prime minister until his dismissal in March 1998. Following the August 1998 Russian financial crisis, Yeltsin re-appointed Chernomyrdin as prime minister, but the Duma refused to confirm his appointment.
In May 2001, Vladimir Putin appointed Chernomyrdin as 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 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.[1]
In February 2009 Chernomyrdin again strained relations between Ukraine and Russia when he in an interview said that "it is impossible to come to an agreement on anything with the Ukrainian leadership. If different people come in, we´ll see." The Ukrainian foreign ministry said in a response it could declare Chernomyrdin "persona non grata" over the row.[2]
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".[3]
1. BBC News, Ukraine demands 'genocide' marked, November 25, 2005
2. Unian News Agency, Russia warns it will hit back if Ukraine expels envoys - reports, February 18, 2009
3. RIA Novosti, Chernomyrdin dismissed as Russian ambassador to Ukraine, June 11, 2009
Related Sources:
Russia Profile, Russia's Diplomatic Riddle, Russia Profile, June 16, 2009
Wikipedia.org , Viktor Chernomyrdin page
Last updated on June 29, 2009
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