Sergei Stepashin
 Sergei Stepashin    (spook, politician) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Born | Sergei Vadimovich Stepashin 1952-03-02 Lüshunkou, China | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nationality | Russian | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Alma mater | Higher Political School of the USSR Ministry of the Interior, Lenin Political-Military Academy, Finance Academy | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Religion | Russian Orthodox | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Children | Vladimir | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Spouse | Tamara Stepashina | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Russian PM for 82 days, resigned over Chechen policy.
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Sergei Vadimovich Stepashin is a Russian politician who was Prime Minister of Russia for 82 days in 1999. Prior to this he had been appointed as federal security minister by President Boris Yeltsin in 1994, a position from which he resigned in 1995 as a consequence of the Budyonnovsk hospital hostage crisis, where Chechen militants took between 1,500 and 1,800 people hostage, killing several hundred.
Subsequent to his tenure as Prime Minister he served as Chairman of the Accounts Chamber of Russia from 2000 until 2013.
Early life and education
Stepashin was born in Port-Arthur, Kvantun Oblast, USSR (now Lüshunkou, China) on 2 March 1952. He graduated from the Higher Political School of the USSR Ministry of the Interior (1973), in 1981 from the Lenin Military-Political Academy, and in 2002 from the Finance Academy. He is a Doctor of Law, Professor, and has a rank of the State Advisor on Justice of the Russian Federation. His military rank is colonel general.[1]
Career
Stepashin served as the Head of the FSK (the predecessor of the FSB) from February 1994 until June 1995. He then became justice minister, serving from 1997 to March 1998, and interior minister, holding that office from March 1998 to May 1999, when he was appointed and confirmed by parliament as prime minister. Yeltsin allegedly made it fairly clear when he appointed him Prime Minister that Stepashin would only hold the position temporarily[citation needed], and he was replaced in August 1999 by future president Vladimir Putin.
Stepashin's attitude towards the Chechen conflict was markedly different from that of his successor. Stepashin had, for example, presented leaders of the separatist regime in Chechnya with monogrammed pistols, praised the activities of the religious extremists who had taken over several Dagestani villages (the province next to Chechnya) and had proclaimed publicly: "We can afford to lose Dagestan!"[2]
After having been fired from the position of Prime Minister, Stepashin joined the liberal (pro-Western) political party Yabloko for the Russian parliamentary elections of 1999 and was elected to the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament. Later on he resigned his parliamentary seat and became head of the Account Chamber of the Russian Federation, the federal audit agency. He holds his job to date.
Since 2007, Stepashin is the head of the revived Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society.
References
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20090307200100/http://www.ach.gov.ru/en/about/chairman/
- ↑ Tishkov, Valery (2005). "Dynamics of a Society at War". In Richard Sakwa (ed.). Chechnya: From Past to Future (1st ed.). London: Anthem Press. pp. 157–181.
