Yevgeny Primakov

Yevgeny Maksimovich Primakov (29 October 1929 – 26 June 2015, Russian pronunciation: [jɪvˈɡʲenʲɪj mɐˈksʲiməvʲɪtɕ prʲɪmɐˈkof]) was a Russian politician and diplomat who served as Prime Minister of Russia from 1998 to 1999. During his long career, he also served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1996 to 1998, the Director of Foreign Intelligence from 1991 to 1996, and Speaker of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union from 1990 to 1991. Primakov was an academician (Arabist) and a member of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Primakov was born in Kyiv in the Ukrainian SSR, and grew up in Tbilisi in the Georgian SSR.

Primakov's father's surname was Nemchenko. He had been imprisoned in the Gulag during the Stalinist purges. Primakov's mother was Jewish, named Anna Yakovlevna Primakova. She worked as an obstetrician and was a cousin of the famous physiologist Yakov Kirshenblat [ru].

Primakov was educated at the Moscow Institute of Oriental Studies, graduating in 1953, and carried out postgraduate work at Moscow State University. He graduated with a degree in Arabic.

His grandson is Yevgeny Primakov Jr. (Russian: Евгений Александрович Примаков), a journalist, TV host, politician and diplomat.

From 1956 to 1970, he worked as a journalist for Soviet radio and a Middle Eastern correspondent for Pravda newspaper. During this time, he was sent frequently on intelligence missions to the Middle East and the United States as a KGB co-optee under codename MAKSIM. Primakov reportedly may have been coerced into joining the intelligence services.

As a Senior Researcher at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations, Primakov entered into scientific society in 1962. From 30 December 1970 to 1977, he served as deputy director of the Institute of World Economy and International Relations, part of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union. In this role he participated in the Dartmouth Conferences alongside, among others, Charles Yost. From 1977 to 1985 he was Director of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the USSR Academy of Sciences. During this time he was also First Deputy Chairman of the Soviet Peace Committee. In 1985 he returned to the Institute of World Economy and International Relations, serving as Director until 1989.

Primakov became involved in national politics in 1989, as the Chairman of the Soviet of the Union, one of two chambers of the Soviet parliament. From 1990 until 1991 he was a member of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's Presidential Council of the Soviet Union. He served as Gorbachev's special envoy to Iraq in the run-up to the Persian Gulf War, in which capacity he held talks with President Saddam Hussein to try to convince him to withdraw Iraqi forces from Kuwait.