Sergey Glazyev

Sergey Glazyev

Sergey Yurievich Glazyev (Russian: Серге́й Юрьевич Глазьев) (born January 1, 1961) is a Russian politician and economist, Full Member of Russian Academy of Science since 2008. He was a minister in 1993, a member of the State Duma in 1993-2007, and ran for President of Russia in 2004. Glazyev was a co-founder of the Rodina party.

Biography

Born in Zaporizhia, in the Ukrainian SSR as the son of a Russian father and a Ukrainian mother, Glazyev attended Moscow State University, earning a bachelor's degree, master's degree, and finally a Doctor of Philosophy, all in economics. He left the university in 1990. The next year, he entered government service, becoming First Deputy Minister of External Economic Relations under Yegor Gaidar. He served in this capacity for a year, and then was promoted to Minister by Viktor Chernomyrdin, serving until 1993, when he left to run for office.

Elected to the State Duma as a member of the Democratic Party of Russia in 1993 where he would first associate with the likes of his then-friend, and later bitter rival, Dmitry Rogozin, he resigned from office before his first four-year term was complete, as he had been named economic security advisor for the Federation Council of Russia and head of the Council's analytical department. He was also associated with Rogozin and Aleksandr Lebed in the short-lived nationalist political project, the Congress of Russian Communities.

In 1999, he resigned once again to run for the Duma, and was elected this time as an independent on the list of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. This time, however, he clashed with the party's leadership and, in 2003, he abandoned the party to help form Rodina, a nationalist party on the left wing of the Russian political spectrum. That year, he became one of 37 Rodina candidates elected to the State Duma. Other prominent candidates included Dmitry Rogozin, Chairman of the Duman Foreign Affairs Committee and co-chairman (with Glazyev) of Rodina, and also former Central Bank head Viktor Gerashchenko.

In 2004, both Glazyev and Gerashchenko sought the presidency on separate tickets, with Rodina's leaders voting to remain neutral in the contest. Gerashchenko was nominated as the candidate of one of the minor parties that made up the Rodina coalition, which led to the Central Election Commission refusing to place him on the ballot, as he had not been nominated by the whole party. Glazyev, who had nominated himself as an Independent, did not have any such problems, and appeared on the ballot.

During the election, Glazyev portrayed himself as a champion of social justice and an opponent of political corruption, particularly in the form of the Russian oligarchs. He pledged to write the guarantee of a high standard of living into the constitution, provide universal health care and free public education to the masses, triple the minimum wage, protect the rights of trade unions, redistribute the wealth belonging to the oligarchs, and increase economic growth. He also promised to eradicate the notorious Russian Mafia, purge corrupt bureaucrats and members of the police force, and protect the country from terrorism. This platform proved to be moderately popular, and Glazyev received 2,826,641 votes, or 4.1%, third place out of a field of six.

Following the election, Rogozin, who had long sought to remove his rival from party power, succeeded in getting the party rank-and-file to vote Glazyev out as co-chairman, leaving Rogozin in control. This led to Glazyev and his supporters attempting to form their own party, called For a Decent Life, although this, too, suffered a setback when the Ministry of Justice refused to recognize the validity of the party.

Following a split between Rogozin and Sergei Baburin in 2005, Glazyev re-joined the Rodina faction and reconciled with his former political partner. After Rogozin was replaced as party leader by Aleksander Babakov in early 2006, Rodina merged with the Russian Party of Life and the Russian Pensioners' Party in 2006 to create a new party, Fair Russia.

Glazyev announced his retirement from politics in March 2007, and said that he did not intend to seek a further term in the Duma, arguing that Vladimir Putin's rule had crowded out all forms of political opposition and debate in the country.

In July 2012, Putin appointed Glazyev as presidential aide for the coordination of the work of federal agencies in developing the Customs Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Russia.[1]

Glazyev has authored more than forty books and hundreds of pamphlets and research papers. One of his books has been published in English translation by the LaRouche movement's Executive Intelligence Review as Genocide: Russia and the New World Order (ISBN 0-943235-16-2). In 1995 he was awarded with the Gold Kondratieff Medal[2] by the International N. D. Kondratieff Foundation and the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences (RAEN).

On March 17, 2014, the next day after the Crimean status referendum, Glazyev became one of the first seven persons who were put by President Obama under executive sanctions. The sanctions freeze his assets in the US and ban him from entering the United States.[3]

Political positions

In August 2013 Glazyev said that stating that all Ukrainians favor Ukraine to integrate in the European Union "is some kind of sick self-delusion"[4] and, citing a December 2012 poll,[5] said "sociological surveys by Ukrainian sociological services say something different: 35% of people prefer the European Union and 40% the Customs Union".[4] He blamed "numerous political scientists and experts, who have fed on European and American grants for 20 years, and a whole generation of diplomats and bureaucrats that has appeared after the years of the ‘orange’ hysteria, who are carrying out an anti-Russian agenda" and "who are too far from the economy and real life, don’t really know their country’s history and are divorced from its spiritual traditions" for creating "an effect that Ukraine doesn’t want".[4] However opinion polls of Ukrainians that polled support in Ukraine for European Union membership and/or the Customs Union at the time of Glazyev's statements showed Ukrainian sentiment was different at the time with a poll by German state-owned broadcaster Deutsche Welle showing a majority support for EU ascension and polls by Ukrainian research company's RATING and Razumkov Centre indicating more Ukrainians preferred joining the European Union rather than the Custom Union.[6][7][8]

In June 2014, in an interview with the BBC, he called the new President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, illegitimately elected due to the lack of votes in Ukraine´s Easternmost provinces; the signing on the 27th of June 2014 of Ukraine–European Union Association Agreement likewise illegitimate; and he also called Poroshenko a Nazi: "Europe is trying to push Ukraine to sign this agreement by force ... They organised [a] military coup in Ukraine, they helped Nazis to come to power. This Nazi government is bombing the largest region in Ukraine." Asked if he believed Mr Poroshenko was a Nazi he replied: "Of course."[9][nb 1]

On 2 July 2014, Glazyev warned about economic consequences following the association of Ukraine with the European Union, "Be objective — the association with the EU imposed on Ukraine by force is leading to the sharp deterioration of the already poor state of Ukraine's economy, the reduction of its competitiveness, the forcing of Ukrainian goods out of the market and drop in their production, increased unemployment and decreased living standards."[11]

Accusation

On 5 July 2014, the head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) Valentyn Nalyvaichenko announced that a criminal action was brought against Glazyev under Ukraine’s Criminal Code Article 436 (public appeals for unleashing a military conflict).[12] Glazyev replied that "the SBU in Ukraine exerts the same function as the Gestapo did in the Nazi Germany." In his words, "the SBU is a criminal organization, and its leadership is completely controlled by American secret services."[13]

Notes

  1. ↑ The same day President Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian media that Glazyev's comments did not reflect the official position of the Russian government.[10]

References

  1. ↑ Putin Appoints Outspoken Critic as Aide, Moscow Times, July 31, 2012
  2. ↑ The International N. D. Kondratieff Foundation
  3. ↑ Logiurato, Brett (17 March 2014). "Obama Just Announced Sanctions Against 7 Russian 'Cronies'". Business Insider. Retrieved 17 March 2014.
  4. 1 2 3 Putin’s aide calls opinion that all Ukrainians want European integration “sick self-delusion”, Interfax-Ukraine (21 August 2013)
  5. ↑ "Poll: Ukrainians prefer Customs Union accession rather than association with EU". Kyiv Post. 20 December 2012.
  6. ↑ At the crossroads or Integration puzzles, RATING (11 April 2013)
  7. ↑ Ukraine: EU support up again, Deutsche Welle (3 July 2013)
  8. ↑ Poll: Ukrainians prefer joining European Union rather than Customs Union, Interfax-Ukraine via Kyiv Post (21 August 2013)
  9. ↑ "Ukraine: Putin aide brands Poroshenko 'Nazi' ahead of EU deal". BBC News. 27 June 2014.
  10. ↑ EU signs pacts with Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova, BBC News (27 June 2014)
  11. ↑ Сергей Глазьев (2 July 2014). Открытый ответ иностранного члена Национальной академии наук Украины С.Ю.Глазьева (in Russian). Russian Academy of Sciences.
  12. ↑ СБУ завела уголовное дело на советника Путина. Mirror Weekly (in Russian). 5 July 2014.
  13. ↑ Глазьев: СБУ - преступная организация, работающая под контролем США (in Russian). RIA Novosti. 6 July 2014.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 9/21/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.