CHUBAIS, Anatoly Borisovich
Chairman of UES (United Energy System of Russia)

Anatoly Borisovich Chubais (Анатолий Борисович Чубайс) is the chairman of Russia's state power monopoly, United Energy Systems. He is the quintessential portrait of a Russian oligarch who has held prominent posts in the government.

Chubais was born June 16, 1955, in Borisov, Byelorussia, then a part of the Soviet Union. He graduated in 1977 from the Leningrad Institute of Economics and Engineering with a degree in economics. He continued on as an assistant lecturer at his alma mater immediately after his graduation until 1982. He then became an assistant professor until 1990.

Throughout the 80s, Chubais served as a center of gravity for a circle of reform-minded and democratic economists in Leningrad, now St. Petersburg. In 1987, he founded the "Perestroika" club to help push these ideas.

Starting in 1990, he served as deputy Chairman, then first deputy chairman of the Leningrad Executive Committee. He also advised St. St. Petersburg Mayor Anatoly Sobchak on economic matters. From this point on, he would play a central role in Russia's transformation from a Soviet to market-based economy, and he would reap the rewards of his efforts.

After the 1991 coup by communist hardliners collapsed, Chubais was part of the team brought in to transform the Russian economy under Boris Yeltsin's watch. From the Russian White House, they played a central role in the new reformist government led by Prime Minister Yegor Gaydar.

In November 1991, he became chairman of the State Property Committee of the Russian Federation. From this post, he supported "shock therapy" for the Russian financial system and was one of the strongest advocates for privatization in the post-Soviet government. He initially supported state enterprised being sold off to the highest bidder, but this aroused fears that foreigners and crime bosses would buy up government assets. Instead, the Russian government instituted a voucher system wherein citizens were given shares of previously state-owned companies. This led to widespread selling of vouchers to investment banks and larger shareholders who never intended to repay the interest on the investment, making a core group of Russians very wealthy. For this, Chubais is sometimes called the father of the oligarchs or the most hated man in Russia. His privatization reforms were largely seen as a failure.

In June 1992, he was promoted to first deputy chairman of the Russian Government in charge of economy and finance.

In June 1993, he helped to establish a voting block before parliamentary elections called Vybor Rossii (Choice of Russia). On this ticket, he was elected into the State Duma in December 1993. While in the Duma from 1994 to 1996, he continued to lead the way in Russia's economic policies as a member of the Committee for Property, Privatization and Economics. While serving in the Duma, continued to hold influential economic posts in the government as well.

From November 1994 to January 1996, served as First Deputy Chairman of the Russian Government in Charge of Economy and Finance and head of the Federal Commission on Securities and Stock Market. From 1995, he was Russia's liason to international financial organizations.

As an outgrowth of this work, Chubais established the Private Property and Protection Fund. The fund's objective was to raise Yeltsin's profile for an upcoming presidential election and secure his place as president. After Yetlsin won the election, he appointed Chubais chief of staff for the Presidential Administration.

In March 1997, Chubais was taken out of his position as head of the Presidential Administration and  appointed first deputy chairman of the government and minister of finance. From May 1997 to May 1998, he sat on the Security Council of the Russian Federation.

In November 1997, he was dismissed from his post as Finance Minister. In March of the next year, he was also dismissed from his post as first deputy chairman. Presumably, this was to free him up for his next position. On April 30, 1998, Chubais was elected to chair the board of UES.

On July 14, 2000, he was elected President of the Electric Power Council of the Commonwealth of Independent States. He was re-elected in 2001, 2001, 2003 and 2004.

In May 2001, Chubais entered electoral politics as elected co-chairm of the pro-Western Union of Right Forces (SPS) party. When Duma elections came in 2003, he was listed high on the party's ticket, but the party failed to garner much support at the polls. On January 24, 2003, he resigned.

In March 2005, Chubais was the target of an assassination attempt. A roadside bomb detonated underneath his care in a motorcade. Chubais said that he knew about the attack in advance.

Married to second wife Maria, also an economist. Has two children from his first marriage, a son and a daughter.

Related articles:
Father to the Oligarchs  Financial Times  CDI summary (Nov. 13, 2004)

Last updated: April 10, 2008