Mikhail Kasyanov

Mikhail Kasyanov Михаил Касьянов
Prime Minister of Russia
In office 7 May 2000 – 24 February 2004
President	Vladimir Putin
Preceded by	Vladimir Putin
Succeeded by	Viktor Khristenko
First Deputy Prime Minister of Russia
In office 10 January 2000 – 17 May 2000
Prime Minister	Vladimir Putin
Preceded by	Vladimir Putin
Succeeded by	Post abolished (Dmitry Medvedev in 2005)
Personal details
Born	8 December 1957 (1957-12-08) (age 53) Moscow, Russian SFSR, U.S.S.R
Nationality	Russian
Political party	independent (after office People's Democratic Union)

Mikhail Mikhailovich Kasyanov (Russian: Михаи́л Миха́йлович Касья́нов; Russian pronunciation: [mʲɪxɐˈil mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪtɕ kɐˈsʲjanəf]) - (born 8 December 1957) was the Prime Minister of Russia from May 2000 to February 2004.

He is the leader of the People's Democratic Union and an ex-member of the opposition coalition "The Other Russia".^[1]

Political career

The last member of the Russian government closely associated with Yeltsin^{[citation needed]}, Kasyanov was dismissed, along with the entire Russian cabinet, by President Vladimir Putin on 24 February 2004 after more than three years in office.

During this term Kasyanov’s government made serious breakthroughs in launching and successfully finalizing reforms in many areas of the Russian economy and public sector – tax and fiscal reforms, customs reform, pension reform, reorganization of the national infrastructure (energy sector, railways). Inflation was reduced significantly and the Russian economy grew by almost one third. At the same time, the urgent policy of economic diversification had just started and was not fully implemented.

On the first anniversary of his dismissal (24 February 2005) Kasyanov gave a press conference at which he said that he might run for president in the 2008 elections. His bid was tentatively supported by billionaires Leonid Nevzlin [1] and Boris Berezovsky [2] (both in exile after corruption indictments against them in Russia) and former chess champion Garry Kasparov.

Kasyanov with Vladimir Putin, 2000

In April 2006 Mikhail Kasyanov was elected Chairman of the People’s Democratic Union (PDU), a newly launched NGO. PDU was one of the co-founders of the first "The Other Russia" conference [3] in July 2006 and of the "The Other Russia" coalition that was set up at the conference. Kasyanov and the PDU were actively involved in the coalition's work and took part in the Dissenter's Marches [4] in Moscow and St.Petersburg – the first protest manifestations in many years. On 3 March 2007, Kasparov and Kasyanov spoke against Putin's government to thousands of supporters at the Saint Petersburg Dissenters' March. [5]

At a presentation in International Institute for Strategic Studies 26 June 2006, Kasyanov criticized Putin's administration. He said: "Separation of powers has been effectively demolished and replaced by the so-called ‘Vertical of Power’ which is based on the false idea that all the meaningful social and political processes must be kept under control by the state. The government and parliament cannot function any longer without daily instructions. The judiciary is increasingly servile. Independent TV does not exist any more at the federal level and is being quickly uprooted in the regions. Moreover, the state-owned companies and the state itself increase their grip over the electronic and printed media. Responsibility of the regional level of power is totally destroyed by the abolishment of direct elections for the governors." ^[2]

By 2007 PDU had regional branches in 75 regions of Russia [6]. In June 2007 Kasyanov was nominated by the PDU as a candidate for the presidential elections. In September 2007 the new political party People for Democracy and Justice (ru:Народ за демократию и справедливость) ^[3] was established on the basis of the PDU, and Kasyanov was elected its chairman.

2008 presidential candidacy

In 2006 Kasyanov stated his desire to run for President of Russia in 2008. Kasyanov left (opposition group) The Other Russia in July 2007 due to the group's failure to agree on a single presidential candidate.^[1] Kasyanov was nominated as a candidate in December 2007 and on 16 January 2008 he stated that he had finished collecting the 2 million signatures necessary to run as a candidate. [7] Later in the month, however, the Central Election Commission rejected his candidacy on the grounds that 13.36% of the signatures were invalid. Kasyanov claimed that the decision to prevent his candidacy was taken by Putin himself, and he described the election as a farce, calling for a boycott.^[4]

The presentation of his book "Without Putin" the Ukrainian capital Kiev was cancelled on 18 December 2009.^[5] Kasyanov's press secretary claimed that the electricity went out in the Premier Palace Hotel minutes before the presentation was to start and that some 20 young men had blocked the entrance to the hotel to keep attendees from entering.^[5]

Fraud accusations and court case

Allegations that Kasyanov took a two percent commission in exchange for ignoring bribes and illegal business ventures whilst he was working at the Ministry of Finance between 1993 and 1999 led to him being dubbed as "Misha 2 percent" in the Russian media.^[6][7] In Russia's uncertain economic future, written for the United States Congress Joint Economic Committee, the allegations are described as credible,^[8] and a Spiegel article from 2007 notes that Kasyanov insists that his only earnings as a public servant was his government salary and he was only involved in one private business venture since leaving the post of prime minister. The same article also claims that Kasyanov purchased the state-owned dacha of former Communist Party of the Soviet Union ideologue Mikhail Suslov which was worth several million Euros.^[6]

On 11 July 2005, the Russian Office of Public Prosecutor started to investigate the privatization of two houses formerly owned by the government. According to allegations first made by the journalist and State Duma member Aleksandr Hinshtein [8], two luxury government houses had been put up for sale in 2003 by a Kasyanov decree. According to the court verdict of 16 March 2007, he was to return a house and pay 108,135,000 rubles in damages to the government for using the property illegally (approx. USD 4,150,000 or €3,130,000). In 2007, Kasyanov was still planning to appeal. [9]

Timeline

• 1981-90: Engineer; Leading Economist; Senior Specialist; Head of Section, Department of Foreign Economic Relations of the State Planning Committee of the RSFSR.
• 1990: appointed Head of Section, Sub-department of Foreign Economic Relations of the State Planning Committee of the RSFSR.
• 1991: Deputy Head, Sub-department, then Head, Sub-department of Foreign Economic Relations of the Ministry of Economy of the Russian Federation.
• 1992-93: Head, Consolidation Department of the Ministry of Economy of the Russian Federation.
• 1993-95: Head, Department of Foreign Credits and External Debt of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation and Member of the Board of the Ministry of Finance.
• 1995: appointed Deputy Minister of Finance.
• 1999: appointed First Deputy Minister of Finance.
• May 1999: appointed Minister of Finance of the Russian Federation.
• January 2000: appointed First Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation.
• May 2000: Prime Minister of the Russian Federation.
• February 2004: Sacked by President Putin along with the entire cabinet.
• March 2005: Mikhail Kasyanov launched his advisory firm MK Analytica. He started to vocally criticize Russian authorities for their anti-democratic drift and declared his intention to take part in the presidential elections in 2008 to change the general political course of the country.
• April 2006: Chairman of the People’s Democratic Union (PDU), a newly launched NGO.
• June 2007: Nominated by the PDU as a candidate for the presidential elections.
• July 2007: due to the group's failure to agree on a single presidential candidate Kasyanov leaves The Other Russia.^[1]
• September 2007: Chairman of the new political party "People for Democracy and Justice" established on the basis of PDU.
• December 2007: approved by a congress of supporters as a candidate for the presidential elections.
• January 2008: The Central Election Commission of Russia (ЦИК) barred his candidacy for the presidential elections, citing an excess of forgeries within his required two million signatures.

See also

• Mikhail Kasyanov's Cabinet

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} Former Russian Premier Leaves Opposition Group, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (3 July 2007)
2. ^ Address on "Russia's G8 Presidency: Challenges and Opportunites". 26 June 2006
3. ^ RIA Novosti - Russia - Ex-premier Kasyanov to set up political party
4. ^ "Kasyanov barred from Russian poll", BBC News, 27 January 2008.
5. ^ ^{a b} Russian Opposition Leader's Book Premiere Blocked In Kyiv, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (3 July 2007)
6. ^ ^{a b} Klussmann, Uwe (15 March 2007). "Kasparov Takes on Putin's Russia". Spiegel. http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,471854,00.html. Retrieved 2009-06-12. 
7. ^ Shevtsova, Lilia (2005). "Putin, the New Russian Leader". Putin's Russia. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. pp. 88. ISBN 0870032135. http://books.google.com/books?id=l-1mIBMVZ_UC. Retrieved 2009-06-12. 
8. ^ Hardt, John Pearce (2003). "Russia's Evolution as a Predatory State". Russia's uncertain economic future. M.E. Sharpe. pp. 352–353. ISBN 0765612070. http://books.google.com/books?id=6vfCHcp_X6wC. Retrieved 2009-06-12. 

External links

• "The Empire of Freedom", op-ed by Mikhail Kasyanov in Kommersant, 29 August 2006.

Political offices
Preceded by Vladimir Putin	Prime Minister of Russia 2000–2004	Succeeded by Viktor Khristenko

Persondata
Name	Kasyanov, Mikhail Mikhailovitch
Alternative names	Касьянов, Михаил Михайлович (Russian)
Short description	Russian politician, Prime Minister of Russia (2000-2004)
Date of birth	8 December 1957
Place of birth	Solntsevo, Moscow, Soviet Union
Date of death	living
Place of death