Who is Anatoly Chubais? This former Russian official resigned as an adviser to Vladimir Putin in March. He had proclaimed his opposition to the war in Ukraine. Since then, he has left Russia and it is in Italy thatwas hospitalized for a rare illness a week ago. Poisoning was mentioned. This Sunday Anatoly Chubais was able to leave the hospital to take the direction of Germany to continue treatment.
The man who wears the hat for privatizations
Anatoly Chubais has been a must for 30 years in Russia, his recent defection to Vladimir Putin surprised. Successively great architect of privatizations after communism, regent of the Kremlin when Boris Yeltsin was diminished, liberal reformer, big boss and oligarch and finally adviser to Vladimir Putin, this economist, son of a soldier and aged 67, was never very far of power, between disgrace and death threats.
For the average Russian Anatoly Chubais remains the most hated person in the country because of his action in the 1990s. He was indeed the architect of the privatizations launched in 1991 at the end of the USSR.
“It’s always Chubais’ fault!“
This program, the largest in the world, is a shock therapy that sells off state enterprises for the benefit of former members of the nomenklatura. This is what allowed the enrichment of the oligarchs and caused an impoverishment for which the population still holds him responsible. Needless to say, communists hate him.
“It’s Chubais’s fault!“, the refrain launched by Boris Yeltsin is always taken up. At the start, the two characters collaborate however.
Yeltsin surrounds himself with young liberal economists like Egor Gaïdar and Anatoli Tchoubaïs who supported perestroika. The first is Minister of Finance, the other of Privatizations. Chubais knows all about it: he comes from Saint-Petersburg where he studied and above all set up a free economic zone. It is in the team of mayor Anatoly Sobchak that he meets Vladimir Putin.
But in 1995, the Communists won the legislative elections and a fuse had to be blown. It will be Anatoly Chubais: he is so unpopular, it’s all his fault, Boris Yeltsin will say… It works, but Chubais does not disappear from the scene. Considering the polls the following year, it must be remembered to save Yeltsin.
Back to grace
In 1996, Chubais therefore led Yeltsin’s presidential campaign and had him re-elected. His reward: he became head of the administration of the president, a position that made him a regent at only 41 years old when in 1997-1999 Yeltsin was seriously ill.