Sergey Glazyev

Deputy Sergey Yurievich Glazyev, Ph.D. ( _ru. Сергей Юрьевич Глазьев) (born January 1, 1961) is a Russian politician and former candidate for President of Russia in 2004.

Born in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Glazyev attended Moscow State University, earning a bachelor's degree, master's degree, and finally a Doctor of Philosophy, all in economics. He left the university in 1990. The next year, he entered government service, becoming First Deputy Minister of External Economic Relations under Yegor Gaidar. He served in this capacity for a year, and then was promoted to Minister by Viktor Chernomyrdin, serving until 1993, when he left to run for office.

Elected to the State Duma as a member of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation in 1994, he resigned from office before his first four-year term was complete, as he had been named economic security advisor for the Federation Council of Russia and head of the Council's analytical department.

In 1999, he resigned once again to run for the Duma, and was elected again as a Communist. This time, however, he clashed with the party's leadership and, in 2003, he abandoned the party to help form Rodina, a populist, nationalist party on the left wing of the Russian political spectrum. That year, he became one of 37 Rodina candidates elected to the Duma. Other prominent candidates included Dmitry Rogozin, Chairman of the Duman Foreign Affairs Committee and co-chairman (with Glazyev) of Rodina, and also former Central Bank head Viktor Gerashchenko.

In 2004, both Glazyev and Gerashchenko sought the presidency on separate tickets, with Rodina's leaders voting to remain neutral in the contest. Gerashchenko was nominated as the candidate of one of the minor parties that made up the Rodina coalition, which led to the Central Election Commission refusing to place him on the ballot, as he had not been nominated by the whole party. Glazyev, who had nominated himself as an Independent, did not have any such problems, and appeared on the ballot.

During the election, Glazyev portrayed himself as a champion of social justice and an opponent of political corruption, particularly in the form of the Russian oligarchs. He pledged to write the guarantee of a high standard of living into the constitution, provide universal health care and free public education to the masses, triple the minimum wage, protect the rights of trade unions, redistribute the wealth belonging to the oligarchs, and increase economic growth. He also promised to eradicate the notorious Russian Mafia, purge corrupt bureaucrats and members of the police force, and protect the country from terrorism. This platform proved to be moderately popular, and Glazyev received 2,826,641 votes, or 4.1%, third place out of a field of six.

Following the election, Rogozin, who had long sought to remove his rival from party power, succeeded in getting the party rank-and-file to vote Glazyev out as co-chairman, leaving Rogozin in control. This led to Glazyev and his supporters attempting to form their own party, called For a Decent Life, although this, too, suffered a setback when the Ministry of Justice refused to recognize the validity of the party.

Following a split between Rogozin and Sergei Baburin in 2005, Glazyev re-joined the Rodina faction and reconciled with his former political partner. After Rogozin was replaced as party leader by Aleksander Babakov in early 2006, Rodina merged with the Russian Party of Life and the Russian Pensioners' Party in 2006 to create a new party, Fair Russia.

Glazyev announced his retirement from politics in March 2007, and said that he did not intend to seek a further term in the Duma, arguing that Vladimir Putin's rule had crowded out all forms of political opposition and debate in the country.

Glazyev has authored more than forty books and hundreds of pamphlets and research papers. One of his books has been published in English translation by the LaRouche movement's Executive Intelligence Review as "Genocide: Russia and the New World Order" (ISBN 0-943235-16-2).

External links

* [http://www.glazev.ru/ Official web site]
* [http://www.mosnews.com/mn-files/glazyev.shtml Profile on MosNews.com]
* [http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/glazyev1 "Why I Am Challenging Putin" by Sergey Glazyev]