Sergey Kiriyenko

Sergei Kiriyenko's Jewish father, Vladilen Israitel, made his name as a doctor of philosophy. Sergei Kiriyenko was born in Sukhumi, the capital of the Abkhaz ASSR, and grew up in Sochi, in southern Russia. He adopted the Ukrainian surname of his mother. After graduation from high school, Kiriyenko enrolled in the shipbuilding faculty at the Nizhny Novgorod (Gorky) Water Transport Engineers Institute, where his divorced father taught. == Prime Minister of Russia (1998) ==

Kiriyenko was appointed acting Prime Minister after the dismissal of Viktor Chernomyrdin's Second Cabinet by President Boris Yeltsin on 23 March 1998. On 20 April, Kiriyenko met U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbot and assured him that his government will continue the economic reform program. The State Duma, dominated by the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, twice refused to confirm his appointment, but Yeltsin nominated him a third time and threatened to dissolve the parliament. Kiriyenko was confirmed on 24 April. His cabinet included many key ministers from the previous one, including Boris Nemtsov as a Deputy Prime Minister. Russians would popularly call the nomination of Kiriyenko "Kinder Surprise", a reference to both the unexpectedness of such an appointment and his youth at the time of his appointment. His appointment was assisted by Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov, who later became a leading critic of and activist against Vladimir Putin's government. Along with Nemtsov and Anatoly Chubais, Kiriyenko was known during the late 1990s as part of a group of "young reformers", who sought wide-reaching overhauls to the economic system. This was in contrast with his immediate predecessor, the more moderate Viktor Chernomyrdin. In June 1998, Kiriyenko submitted an austerity plan to the IMF while seeking a $10 billion loan to stabilize Russian financial markets. Kiriyenko asked the State Duma on 1 July 1998 to quickly approve the plan. He said that it was the only way to prevent a crisis and that he would resign if it does not work. But the austerity plan was not approved due to Communist opposition, which contributed to the August 1998 Russian financial crisis. The IMF and the United States refused to provide more financial assistance, and Kiriyenko's cabinet defaulted the GKO-OFZ government bond coupons, which led to devaluation of the Russian ruble and the financial crisis. Kiriyenko took responsibility for the crisis and resigned on 23 August. Yeltsin replaced him with Chernomyrdin as acting Prime Minister. The fall of the Kiriyenko government left a political vacuum that was not filled until September, when Yevgeny Primakov assumed the premiership and took economic policy in a different direction. Libel lawsuit In 2004, Novaya Gazeta printed seven articles by columnist Georgy Rozhnov, which accused Kiriyenko of embezzling US$4.8 billion of IMF funds in 1998 when he was Prime Minister of Russia. In response, Kiriyenko sued Novaya Gazeta and Rozhnov for libel, == Union of Right Forces (1999) ==

Together with Boris Nemtsov and Irina Hakamada and along with others, Kiriyenko formed the Union of Right Forces. Kiriyenko led the party in the 1999 legislative election. The party finished fourth in the election, receiving 29 seats. Kiriyenko headed the parliamentary group of the party. == Rosatom (2005–2016) ==

and Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping, 2010 Kiriyenko was appointed to head Rosatom, the Federal Atomic Energy Agency, on 30 November 2005 by Mikhail Fradkov's Second Cabinet during the second term of President Vladimir Putin. He was also appointed by the same administration to chair the board of directors of the vertically integrated Atomenergoprom nuclear company in July 2007. Kiriyenko said on 18 September 2006 while in Vienna, that the reactor in the Bushehr nuclear plant in Iran should be operational by September 2007 and the plant itself will be active in November 2007. He advocated President Vladimir Putin's idea of creating an international system of uranium enrichment centers. A uranium enrichment center could be operational in Russia in 2007. Responding to a reporter's question, Kiriyenko said that the Bushehr power plant would not affect nuclear non-proliferation and that there was nothing preventing Iran-Russia energy cooperation. The Government of Russia planned to deliver nuclear fuel to the plant in March 2007. After a delay of some three years, Kiriyenko said 21 August 2010's arrival of nuclear fuel at Iran's Bushehr I marks "an event of crucial importance" that proves that "Russia always fulfills its international obligations." Spent nuclear fuel from the plant will be sent back to Russia. , 2016 Kiriyenko was replaced as General Director of Rosatom on 5 October 2016 by Alexey Likhachev, former Deputy Minister for Economic Development. It came to light in July 2018 that for his work in Rosatom Kiriyenko was awarded by a confidential decree a Hero of Russia honorary title. == First deputy chief of staff to President Putin ==

In October 2016 Kiriyenko was appointed First Deputy Chief of Staff in Putin's administration. The position has significant status within the Russian government, with The Moscow Times referring to Kiriyenko as "Putin's right-hand man" and a "gray cardinal" following the appointment. Kiriyenko spoke publicly about the need to work with Russian youth and their fondness for debauched hip-hop, most notably in response to the crackdown in late 2018. Vadim Prokhorov, one of his former colleagues, described him as "a very flexible man [ideologically], who will never go against the wind." and Bloomberg News that Kiriyenko had been entrusted with managing the occupied territories, a role that earned him the popular nickname "Viceroy of the Donbas". Kiriyenko has continued to influence Russian domestic policy since the invasion, including allegedly preventing the cancellation of the 2022 Russian gubernatorial elections. Kiriyenko said that "Babushka Anya is a symbol of the motherland for the entire" Russian world. On 6 June Kiriyenko visited occupied Kherson, and it was reported by the Ukrainian mayor of Kherson, Ihor Kolykhaiev, that the occupiers had conducted a meeting of more than 70 Russian sympathisers aimed at conducting a referendum on the region integrating the occupied areas into Russia. Kolykhaiev's sources told him that the dates discussed were two: in September or at the end of 2022. In late 2022, Russian opposition politician Nikita Yuferev accused Kiriyenko of violating Russia's 2022 war censorship laws. Russian disinformation and electoral interference activities In September 2024, the United States Justice Department asserted that Kiriyenko had created some 30 internet domains to spread Russian disinformation, including on Elon Musk's X which was formerly known as Twitter. In October 2024, the Wall Street Journal disclosed that Musk had been in contact with Kiriyenko and Vladimir Putin which Dmitry Peskov affirmed. Kiriyenko played an integral role in Russian electoral interference activities (vote buying networks, bribery, bots and troll farms, orchestrated protests) in the 2025 Moldovan parliamentary election and was assigned to covertly support the campaign of Viktor Orbán, then Prime Minister of Hungary, for the 2026 Hungarian parliamentary election. Sanctions While Kiriyenko was in office, he was sanctioned by both the United Kingdom and European Union (amongst the list of six individuals and one organization) on 15 October 2020 over the Alexei Navalny poisoning. Navalny, an opponent of Putin's, was poisoned on 20 August 2020, while travelling on a flight inside Russia. On 21 February 2022, after Putin officially recognized the Luhansk People's Republic and Donetsk People's Republic as independent from Ukraine, other countries began to sanction Russian individuals and companies. On 22 February 2022, US President Joe Biden imposed sanctions on Kiriyenko, along with his son Vladimir for their connections to the Russian government. ==Family==

Kiriyenko's son Vladimir was appointed CEO of VKontakte in December 2021, the influential Russian social network after the controversial takeover of VKontakte by companies affiliated with state-owned gas giant Gazprom, in what critics said was a sign of the Kremlin tightening its grip over the social media network. Critics have accused the company of sharing user's data with Russia's security services. ==See also==