August 29, 2007. Copyright 2007, Graphic News. All rights reserved

Sergei Ivanov favourite to win RussiaÕs top job
By Joanna Griffin

LONDON, August 29, Graphic News:  Sergei Ivanov, the man currently tipped to become RussiaÕs next president, is a former KGB officer whose victory in the 2008 presidential elections would almost certainly propel Moscow further down a road on which collisions with the West are virtually guaranteed.

IvanovÕs popularity has soared ever since he was removed from the unpopular defence post in February to become joint first deputy prime minister with his closest rival in the polls, Dmitry Medvedev. That his campaign has received blanket media coverage has fuelled suggestions that Ivanov is now the anointed successor of President Vladimir Putin.

Putin, who took office in 2000, is constitutionally barred from a third term and has yet to declare his favourite for the job, but some Kremlin watchers claim he may seek to retain his influence by passing his mantle to a likeminded loyalist and -- if so -- Ivanov certainly fits the bill. Most agree that PutinÕs backing virtually guarantees victory in the polls.

The men are uncannily similar: born on January 31, 1953, in the presidentÕs home town of St Petersburg, Ivanov is just a few months younger than Putin. Both studied at specialist schools before attending St Petersburg University and then completing post-graduate studies in counter-intelligence. Ivanov held several intelligence posts in Scandinavia and Africa, and is a prominent member of the so-called siloviki -- the Òpower guysÓ from the old KGB and its successor, the FSB.

In the late 1990s, Ivanov, a linguist and avid reader of British spy novels who attributes his love of the English language down to an early fascination with the Beatles, became PutinÕs deputy at the internal intelligence agency, the FSB.

After serving as secretary of the Russian Security Council under President Boris Yeltsin, in 2001 Ivanov became the first civilian to hold the defence portfolio, a role in which he won a reputation as an authoritarian hawk: in 2003 he declared that Russia did not rule out a pre-emptive military strike anywhere in the world if circumstances demanded it, and he spoke out against a U.S. plan to build an anti-missile shield in central Europe.

But it was his personal style and frosty demeanour that earned him the nickname ÒMr NastyÓ after he reacted coolly to a brutal ÒhazingÓ incident in which young army recruit Andrei Sychov was beaten so badly by older soldiers that he had to have his legs and gentials amputated. His reaction to the murder in London of former KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko was similarly blunt, telling journalists: ÒFor us, Litvinenko was nothingÓ.

In addition to the similarities in their backgrounds, Ivanov shares PutinÕs mistrust of the West and his vision for Russia. Earlier this year he played a key role in the reinstatement of Soviet era military symbols and, like Putin, he takes a tough line towards Chechen rebels and their supporters, even threatening to attack the small state of Georgia for allegedly harbouring militants.

Such pronouncements have not endeared him to Western leaders concerned by MoscowÕs current belligerent attitude and its future direction. At home, meanwhile, sporadic protests by supporters of opposition politician and former world chess champion Gary Kasparov may not be enough to ensure that the 2008 polls are genuinely fair and democratic.

Ivanov, who enjoys drinking red wine and is a keen fisherman, is married with two sons.
/ENDS