Now in his 80's Zubkov is still the current chairman of the board of directors of Gazprom, Russia's largest corporation and one of the largest oil and natural gas companies in the world.
Life and career
Born in Sverdlovsk Oblast, Zubkov graduated from the Economic Department of the Leningrad Agriculture Institute in 1972.
In 1966, he was drafted to the Soviet Army for an 18-month term. From 1967 to 1985, he worked on leading positions in kolkhozes of Leningrad Oblast. From 1985 to 1991, he occupied several leading positions in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in Leningrad Oblast: Chairman of the Priozersk City Executive Committee, First Secretary of the Priozersk City Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and head of the Department of Agriculture and Food Industry and the Agricultural Department of the Regional Committee of the CPSU. He was also First Deputy Chairman of the Leningrad Oblast Executive Committee from 1989 to 1991.
In January 1992 to November 1993, he was a deputy Chairman of the External Relations Committee of the Saint Petersburg Mayor Office led by Vladimir Putin. From 3 November 1993, to 30 November 1998, Zubkov was the Chief of the Saint Petersburg Department of the State Tax Inspection and simultaneously a Deputy Chairman of the State Tax Inspection for Saint Petersburg.
In December 1998, during the term of Yevgeny Primakov's Cabinet the State Tax Inspection was reorganized into the Tax Ministry of Russia and Zubkov's deputy head position was abolished, but he was immediately reappointed Chief of the Saint Petersburg Directorate of the Tax Ministry. On 23 July 1999, Zubkov was appointed Deputy Tax Minister of Russia for the Northwestern region. In a few days he was also appointed Chief of the Saint Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast Directorate of the Tax Ministry.
On 12 August 1999, he was registered as a contender in the Leningrad Oblast governor election, assisted by Boris Gryzlov as his election campaign manager, but lost the election to Valeriy Serdyukov on 19 September 1999, with 8.64 percent of the vote (4th place out of 16).
On 5 November 2001, he left his positions in the Tax Ministry and was appointed First Deputy Finance Minister of Russia and Chairman of the Financial Monitoring Committee of the ministry, aimed to fight money laundering.
Some Kremlinologists viewed Zubkov as one more technical Prime Minister, interpreting the move as a way to renew a competition between possible successors.[8]
Another theory suggested that Putin chose a man of unquestioning loyalty to help him control powerful factions jostling for position inside the Kremlin. Another clue to his usefulness lies in Zubkov's experience under Putin as the man leading the fight against financial crime.
Putin said that there were five people who can run for president and can be elected, including Zubkov.[citation needed] On 13 September, Zubkov himself said he might run for President of Russia in 2008.[9] However, in December 2007, Putin officially gave his support to Dmitry Medvedev for the 2008 presidential election, effectively dashing Zubkov's hopes for the presidency. After Medvedev took office, Zubkov succeeded him as Chairman of Gazprom.[10]
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Viktor_Zubkov, and is written by contributors.
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