Vadim Anatolevich Gustov (born 1948) is a Russian politician who served as first deputy prime

minister from 1998 to 1999 and a regional leader.

Gustov was the head of the Leningrad oblast until it was dissolved in October 1993.[2] In 1994,
he served as chairman of the Federation Council's the commonwealth of independent states
(CIS) affairs committee.[3] He was elected as the governor of the Leningrad region in September
1996, taking 53% of the votes.[2] He was independent but he was supported by the Communist
Party of the Russian Federation.[4] He replaced Aleksandr Belyakov in the aforementioned post.
[4]
Gustov served as governor until his appointment as first deputy prime minister on 18 September
1998.[1][5][6] He was succeeded by Valery Serdyukov as the governor of the Leningrad region.[4]
Gustov, an independent politician, was one of two first deputy prime ministers in the cabinet of
Yevgeny Primakov and he was in charge of regional affairs and the relations with former Soviet
republics.[7][8][9] Gustov's tenure lasted until 27 April 1999 when he was removed from post by
Russian President Boris Yeltsin.[6][10] Gustov was succeeded by Sergei Stepashin in the post.
[10][11]
In the 1999 and 2003 elections Gustov ran for the governorship of the Leningrad region, but he
lost both elections.[12] In January 2002 he became a senator at the Federation Council,
representing the Vladimir Oblast.[13] He was again the chairman of the council's CIS affairs
committee during this period.[14][15]
Views[edit]
Gustov was an anti-Yeltsin figure in the 1990s.[2] Because he was non-communist he did not
support for planned economy idea
Yevgeny Maksimovich Primakov (Russian: , tr. Yevgeniy
Maksimovich Primakov; born 29 October 1929) is a Russian politician and diplomat who was
Prime Minister of Russia from 1998 to 1999. During his long career, he also served as Foreign
Minister, Speaker of the Soviet of the Union of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union, and chief
of the intelligence service.[1] Primakov is an academician and a member of the Presidium of the
Russian Academy of Sciences.
Primakov served as foreign minister from January 1996 until September 1998. As foreign
minister, he gained respect at home and abroad the reputation as a tough but pragmatic
supporter of Russia's interests[4] and as an opponent of NATO's expansion into the former
Eastern bloc, though on 27 May 1997, after 5 months of negotiation with NATO Secretary general
Javier Solana, Russia signed the Foundation Act,[5] which is seen as marking the end of cold war
hostilities.
He was also famously an advocate of multilateralism as an alternative to US global hegemony
following the collapse of the USSR and the end of the Cold War. Primakov called for a Russian
foreign policy based on low-cost mediation while expanding influence towards the Middle East
and the former Soviet republics. Another view is that though Primakov's rhetoric was antiWestern, he actually complied with Western wishes.[6] Primakov has promoted Russia, China,
and India as a "strategic triangle" to counterbalance the United States. The move was interpreted
by some observers as an agreement to fight together against 'color revolutions' in Central Asia.[7]
After Yeltsin's bid to reinstate Viktor Chernomyrdin as Russian prime minister was blocked by the
Duma in September 1998, the President turned to Primakov as a compromise figure whom he
rightly judged would be accepted by the parliament's majority. As prime minister, Primakov was
given credit for forcing some very difficult reforms in Russia, most of them, such as the tax

reform, became major successes. While his opposition to the US Unilateralism was popular
among Russians, it also led to a breach with the West during NATO's aggression inYugoslavia,
which ultimately left Russia alone in subsequent developments in the former Yugoslavia.
Analysts ascribed Yeltsin's 12 May 1999 firing of Primakov as a reaction to his fear of losing
power to a more successful and popular person. Primakov also refused to dismiss Communist
ministers as the Communist Party of the Russian Federation was leading the process of
preparing unsuccessful impeachment proceedings against the president. However, Yeltsin
resigned at the end of the year and was succeeded by the prime minister of that time, Vladimir
Putin.
On March 24, 1999, Primakov was heading to Washington, D.C. for an official visit. Flying over
the Atlantic Ocean, he learned that NATO started to bomb Yugoslavia. Primakov decided to
cancel the visit, ordered the plane to turn around over the ocean and returned to Moscow - it was
called Primakov's loop.[8]
Deputy and special representative[edit]
Before Yeltsins resignation, Primakov supported the Fatherland All Russia electoral faction,
which at that time was the major opponent of the pro-Putin Unity, and launched his presidential
bid. Initially considered the man to beat, Primakov was rapidly overtaken by the factions loyal to
Vladimir Putin in the Duma elections in December 1999. Primakov officially abandoned the
presidential race in his TV address on 4 February 2000[9] less than two months before the 26
March presidential elections. Soon he became an adviser to Putin and a political ally. On 14
December 2001, Primakov became President of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and
Industry.
Leader of Fatherland All Russia Duma fraction Yevgeny Primakov meets President Vladimir
Putin, 2000
In February and March 2003, he visited Iraq and talked with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, as
a special representative of President Vladimir Putin. He brought to Baghdad a message from
Putin to call for Saddam to resign voluntarily.[10] He tried to prevent the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of
Iraq, a move which received some support from several nations opposed to the war. Primakov
suggested that Saddam must hand over all Iraq's weapons of mass destruction to the United
Nations, among other things.[11] "Saddam tapped me on the shoulder and went out of the room",
Primakov recalled.[11] Saddam showed strong confidence that nothing terrible will happen with
him personally. In Primakov's opinion, this confidence was the result of Iraqi secret relationship
with U.S., and the rapid execution of Saddam did not allow him to "say the last word" to uncover
the whole game. "And if he had said all this, I assure you, it was very uncomfortable to sit in the
President chair for the current President of the United States", Primakov assured.[10] However,
Saddam's execution was anything but rapid. He was captured in December 2003, allowed to
speak at length many times during a long, open trial, and not executed until December 2006.
In November 2004, Primakov testified in defense of the former Yugoslav President Slobodan
Miloevi, on trial for war crimes. Earlier, he was the leader of a Russian delegation that met with
Slobodan Milosevic during NATO bombing of Yugoslavia.
On 11 December 2007, Primakov said at a meeting with Putin that the course followed by Putin
should be continued, as Putin prepares to leave the presidency in 2008. He said that there were
two threats to this course: one from neo-liberals and the oligarchs, and one from those seeking
the merger "of the state apparatus with business" in order to create an "administrative-market
society".[12]
On 21 February 2011, Primakov announced that he would resign as President of the Russian
Chamber of Commerce and Industry, effective 4 March 2011