Unclassified
Document
ID: CEP20020311000029
Entry
Date: 03/11/2002
Version
Number: 01
[FBIS Translated Text] Russian Interior Minister Boris Gryzlov rose to the high echelons of power through his work at the St Petersburg branch of the Unity political movement. He was then elected to the State Duma and was one of the people who established the work of the pro-Kremlin faction in parliament. His appointment as interior minister was made not on professional but on purely political grounds. Following is the text of report by Russian Ren TV on 10 March, with subheadings inserted editorially:
[Presenter] Today, as we have promised, we shall offer you a profile of
the Russian interior minister, Mr Gryzlov. All that is secret, one day
will be revealed.
[Correspondent] Who a year ago would have thought that the leader of the
pro-government Unity faction [in the State Duma], Boris Gryzlov, would
become the country's chief policeman? The engineer, trade union activist,
head of an external trade company has always been rather far from police
work.
Some people think that he was just lucky. He was at school together with
the current director of the FSB, Nikolay Patrushev. Later he got to know
[deputy head of the presidential administration] Dmitriy Kozak, who is
now an influential politician. However, back then those people were nothing
more than ordinary officials in the city of Leningrad. But later on it
was they who helped Gryzlov to climb the political Olympus. And Gryzlov
managed to make a name for himself in political circles. He was not a particularly
zealous public figure, but he often was present at various unofficial gatherings.
Such an active social life would seem unlikely given his serious looks,
but appearances can be deceptive.
[Aleksey Mukhin, captioned as head of the centre of political information]
Despite his respectable looks and polished manners, Boris Vyacheslavovich
is full of passions inside. One of the indications of the above is that
Boris Vyacheslavovich is a very reckless driver. He loves cars and he is
a very reckless driver. For a time, it was a matter of special pride to
him that he was the only member of the State Duma to own a humpbacked Zaporozhets
[the oldest make of car produced at the AvtoZAZ plant]. If we want to be
accurate as to detail, we need to say that he has already sold it. He sold
it in 1998 through a power of attorney. Since then he has bought a Nissan,
a car capable of building up a very high speed. When Boris Vyacheslavovich
admits that he cannot let anybody else be the first to start off after
a red traffic light, it shows him to be an adventurous person, despite
the impression produced by his serious and respectable looks.
Putin's man in the Duma
[Correspondent] For the better part of his professional life, Gryzlov worked
at classified defence industry enterprises. He worked on developing space
systems. As head of the St Petersburg branch of the Unity political movement,
Gryzlov revealed his skills as an election campaign organizer and a driving
force. In December 1999, he was elected to the State Duma from the Unity
federal list of candidates. He then was appointed head of the pro-government
Unity faction in the Duma which was a great leap forward for him. And Gryzlov
turned out to be up to the president's expectations and built the parliamentary
faction he was in charge of in such a way as to meet presidential needs.
[Aleksey Mukhin] Within Unity, Boris Gryzlov was dealing with tasks which
he thought he was very good at. He was developing the party and its structures.
He was developing the party's ideology - this is what it looked like from
the outside, from a formal point of view. On the other hand, he, as a spin
doctor, was dealing with the Kremlin's problems in the State Duma, that
is he pushed for the necessary resolutions to be adopted by the parliament;
was arranging favourable publicity for pro-Kremlin decisions; was rallying
together Duma members and - as our data suggest - he was working in close
contact with [deputy head of the presidential administration] Vladislav
Surkov who was giving orders and Boris Gryzlov was carrying them out. However,
it would be impossible to say that everything passed without a single hitch
and without any conflicts.
[Correspondent] As head of the parliamentary faction, Gryzlov was probably
the only person who knew what the pro-Kremlin party was set up for. He
became a sort of a symbol of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin's Duma.
Closely following instructions from the Kremlin, members of his faction
could be trusted to cast a unanimous vote the right way, while those who
were not happy with this arrangement were banished from the faction by
Gryzlov himself. Such was the case with Vladimir Ryzhkov after he voiced
his opposition to Unity's political line.
On the whole, there were quite a few conflicts and arguments inside the
Unity faction. Nevertheless, it was none other but Gryzlov who managed
to ensure the adoption of laws necessary for the president which enabled
the latter to strengthen the vertical of power. Gryzlov's constant interaction
with the Kremlin was interpreted by the media as an indication of a puppeteering
quality of this relationship. However, it is possible that this was exactly
the thing that brought Gryzlov to the top echelons of power.
Politician among policemen
[Yuriy Ovchinnikov, captioned as advisor on social and political issues]
As far as I understand the task now it is to create such an Interior Ministry
that in two years' time when Mr Gryzlov leaves it - and I don't think he
will be needed there in two years' time after he has fulfilled all the
tasks that he has set for himself: building the vertical of power, eliminating
the overlap of functions, etc - he will not be needed and all the necessary
mechanisms will by then be in place. And he will achieve all that through
traditional means, without any revolutionary ideas.
[Correspondent] Which he has already started doing. Gryzlov needed three
months in his new capacity [of Russian Interior Minister] to become familiar
with the complicated organizational structure and to overhaul the ministry's
central apparatus. He has replaced most deputy ministers and heads of all
main directorates. Practically all new appointees were drawn from the St
Petersburg lobby and Gryzlov approved the personnel make-up of the ministry
and assumed responsibility for the actions of these people. Let Gryzlov
be an outsider, inept at a professional policemen's skills, but his deputies
are now people approved by the president and drawn from [KGB headquarters]
Lubyanka cadres.
[Aleksey Mukhin] This political appointment was made in order to move the
focus of the Interior Ministry from its complete subordination to Vladimir
Rushaylo, who was appointed Security Council Secretary, to subordination
to Vladimir Putin. Boris Vyacheslavovich Gryzlov, who did not belong to
the Interior Ministry, who is not a policeman and who in fact is a deeply
civilian person despite his having been born to an officer's family, was
facing a political task. All the professional aspects of his job were taken
on by Vladimir Vasilyev, one of Vladimir Rushaylo's key rivals. Thus Gryzlov
held the title but the real interior minister was Vladimir Vasilyev.
[Correspondent] Gryzlov's appointment as interior minister came as a complete
surprise to everybody. Gryzlov himself said that he had learnt of the appointment
from the papers. He was not prepared for such a turn of events. It seems
that Gryzlov has no ambition to become a professional policeman. It is
more likely that after he has fulfilled his task here, he will be moved
to another task. It is quite possible that his next appointment could be
to the position of the Secretary of the Security Council. However, in this
case it would again be a political appointment.
[Video shows various archive footage.]
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