Vladimir Yakunin

Vladimir Ivanovich Yakunin ( _ru. Владимир Иванович Якунин; born June 30, 1948 in Vladimir region) is a Russian official, head of state-run Russian Railways company. Vladimir Yakunin is a close ally of the Russian president Vladimir Putin and is considered to be one of the members of his inner circle.

His father was a pilot of the USSR Border Troops of KGB.

As a child Vladimir Yakunin lived in Estonia.

In 1972 Vladimir Yakunin graduated from Leningrad Mechanical Institute where he studied aircraft construction. In 1972-1975 he worked in the State Institute for Applied Chemistry in Leningrad.

After completing his military service (1975-1977) he worked in the State Committee for International Trade of the Sovmin (Council of Ministers) until 1982.

In 1982-1985 he was a Head of the Foreign Relations Department in the Ioffe Physico-Technical Institute.

Between 1985 and 1991 Yakunin was part of the Soviet diplomatic mission in the United Nations, since 1988 as the First Secretary of the Mission. According to some sources, during this term he worked as an officer of the First Chief Directorate of KGB (foreign intelligence). [http://www.anticompromat.ru/yakunin/yakunbio01.html]

After 1991 he was a private businessman until 1997 when he became a government official once again.

In April 1991 together with Yuriy Kovalchuk and Sergey Fursenko he founded the enterprise TEMP Ltd. and became its deputy director general. Sergey Fursenko assumed the position of its director general.

Also in 1991 together with Yuriy Kovalchuk and Viktor Myachin he founded JSC Quark (later renamed to JSC Stream).

In December 1991 he became a member of the board of directors and minor shareholder of the Russia bank.

Since the early 90s, Yakunin owns a dacha in Solovyovka, Priozersky district of the Leningrad region, which is located on the eastern shore of the Komsomol'skoye lake on the Karelian Isthmus near St. Petersburg. His neighbours there are Vladimir Putin, Andrei Fursenko, Sergey Fursenko, Yuriy Kovalchuk, Viktor Myachin, Vladimir Smirnov and Nikolay Shamalov. On November 10, 1996, together they instituted the co-operative society Ozero (the Lake) which united their properties. [http://anticompromat.ru/oligarhi/ppo.html] [http://www.lib.ru/HISTORY/FELSHTINSKY/naslednik.txt]

In January 1997 Yakunin was elected member of the board of directors of BaltUneximbank.

Since December 72000 - February 2002 Yakunin became deputy of the Russia's Transportation Minister Sergey Frank.

On February 82002 he was appointed First deputy of the new Transportation Minister Gennady Fadeev where he worked until October 222003.

On October 242003 Vladimir Yakunin became Deputy Head of the Russian Railways headed by Gennady Fadeev and created out of the Ministry. On June 152005 he became Head of the Russian Railways.

Vladimir Yakunin is Chairman of the Committee of Trustees of the Center of the National Glory of Russia and St. Andrew's Foundation organizations which fund Orthodox Church-related projects.

Vladimir Yakunin is also President of the "World Public Forum - Dialogue of Civilizations", an International NGO, registered in Vienna, Austria, which he co-founded with C.Kapur of India and N.Papanikolao from Greece/USA. World Public Forum - Dialogue of Civilizations is an initiative to link people of different civilizations, traditions and religions. It organizes the annual Rhodes Conference on Dialogue of Civilizations.

Online References

* [http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2006/06/1b21919a-faf5-4d77-9b84-4a195bbff915.html Victor J. Yasmann "Russia: Could Yakunin Be 'First-Called' As Putin's Successor?"] , Radio Free Europe, June 21, 2006.
* [http://www.cdi.org/russia/johnson/9180-6.cfm Ilya Arkhipov "A Senior Railway Official's Take on the Kremlin's Route"] , Russia Profile, June 16, 2005.
* [http://www.anticompromat.ru/yakunin/yakunbio01.html A biography of Yakunin by V. Pribylovsky] in Russian
* [http://www.kommersant.com/page.asp?id=585323 Yambaeva, Renata. The Railwayman] Kommersant, 15.06.2005