Nikolay Dmitrievich Kovalyov (Russian: Николай Дмитриевич Ковалёв; 6 August 1949 – 5 April 2019)^[1] was a Russian politician and member of the State Duma, where he chaired the Duma's Veterans' Committee. Kovalyov was the Director of the FSB from July 1996 to July 1998, when he was succeeded by Vladimir Putin.

Quick Facts Member of the State Duma for Oryol Oblast, Preceded by ...

Nikolay Kovalyov
Николай Ковалёв
Kovalyov in 1999
Member of the State Duma for Oryol Oblast
In office 5 October 2016 – 5 April 2019
Preceded by	constituency re-established
Succeeded by	Olga Pilipenko
Constituency	Oryol (No. 145)
Member of the State Duma (Party List Seat)
In office 29 December 2003 – 5 October 2016
Member of the State Duma for Moscow
In office 18 January 2000 – 29 December 2003
Preceded by	Andrey Makarov
Succeeded by	Sergey Osadchy
Constituency	Sheremetyevo (No. 205)
Director of the Federal Security Service
In office 20 June 1996 – 25 July 1998
President	Boris Yeltsin
Preceded by	Mikhail Barsukov
Succeeded by	Vladimir Putin
Personal details
Born	Nikolay Dmitrievich Kovalyov (1949-08-06)6 August 1949 Moscow, Russian SFSR, USSR
Died	5 April 2019(2019-04-05) (aged 69) Moscow, Russia
Political party	United Russia
Children	2
Alma mater	Moscow Institute of Electronic Machine Building (MIEM)
Military service
Allegiance	Soviet Union  Russian Federation
Branch/service	KGB FSB
Years of service	1974-1998
Rank	Army General
Battles/wars	Soviet-Afghan War

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Nikolay Kovalyov joined the KGB in 1974.^[2] He was appointed General of the Army in 1997. In 1999 he was elected a deputy to the State Duma of the Russian Federation.^[2]

He said in 1996: "There has never been such a number of spies arrested by us since the time when German agents were sent in during the years of World War II."^[3] He also publicly speculated that Boris Berezovsky might be involved in the death of Alexander Litvinenko.^[4]

During the Bronze Soldier Controversy in 2007, Kovalyov led a "fact finding mission" to Estonia, where the authorities were relocating a World War II memorial, including a two meter tall bronze soldier in a Soviet uniform.^[5] Before leaving Moscow, Kovalyov asked Estonia's government to step down.^[6] The two-day visit by the delegation, originally set up to defuse a diplomatic dispute over the Bronze Soldier statue, only appeared to have escalated the feud, with the Estonian foreign minister and other Government officials refusing to meet with Kovalyov's delegation.^[7][8]

• Order of Merit for the Fatherland;
  • 3rd (20 April 2006) for outstanding contribution to law-making and long-term diligent work
  • 4th class
• Order of Military Merit^[9]
• Order of the Red Star
• Medal for Merits in perpetuating the memory of the fallen defenders of the Fatherland (Russian Ministry of Defence, 2008) for his great personal contribution to the commemoration of the fallen defenders of the Fatherland, the establishment of names of the dead and the fate of missing servicemen, displaying high moral and business qualities, diligence and intelligent initiative, to assist in the task of perpetuating the memory of the fallen defenders of the Fatherland
• Diploma of the Russian Federation President (9 January 2010) for services in legislative activities and the development of Russian parliamentarism

• List of members of the State Duma of Russia who died in office