Ivan Rybkin

Ivan Rybkin
Ива́н Ры́бкин
6th Chairman of the State Duma
In office
14 January 1994 – 17 January 1996
President Boris Yeltsin
Preceded by Ruslan Khasbulatov as Chairman of the Supreme Soviet
Mikhail Rodzianko as Chairman of the State Duma of Russian Empire
Succeeded by Gennadiy Seleznyov
5th Secretary of the Security Council
In office
19 October 1996 – 2 March 1998
Preceded by Alexander Lebed
Succeeded by Andrei Kokoshin
Personal details
Born Ivan Petrovich Rybkin
(1946-10-20) 20 October 1946
Semigorka, Voronezh Oblast, USSR
Nationality Russian

Ivan Petrovich Rybkin (Russian: Ива́н Петро́вич Ры́бкин; born 20 October 1946) is a Russian politician. He was Chairman of Russia's State Duma in 1994–96 and Secretary of the Security Council in 1996–98. He ran for the Russian Presidency in 2004, before dropping out after allegedly being kidnapped and drugged by Russian state FSB officers.

Early life

He was born in village of Semigorka, Voronesh Oblast. In 1968, Rybkin graduated from Volgograd Agricultural Institute, and in 1991 from the Soviet Academy of Social Sciences. After a career on lower ranks of the Communist Party, Rybkin was elected as peoples' deputy to the congress of the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic in 1990. In 1993, Rybkin became a member of the Agrarian Party of Russia. That very year in December, he was elected deputy of the State Duma.

Political career

Speaker of Russian State Duma

In 1994, Rybkin was elected speaker of the State Duma. In January 1995, he became a member of the Security Council of the Russian Federation. In July of that year, Rybkin became a leader of the Ivan Rybkin Bloc. In March 1998, Rybkin was appointed Deputy Prime Minister for Commonwealth of Independent States affairs.

Presidential candidate and kidnapping

In 2004, Rybkin was nominated by Berezovsky's Liberal Party for the Russian presidential elections. During the campaign, on 2 February 2004, he accused incumbent President Vladimir Putin of organizing terrorist acts in Russia in 1999 and of being involved in shady business activities with Yury Kovalchuk, Mikhail Kovalchuk, Gennady Timchenko, KiNEx and the Russia Bank, which allegedly swallowed up a vast share of the nation's financial flows.

In February 2004, Rybkin disappeared for 4 days under mysterious circumstances. A day after his return he accused the Putin administration of complicity in the 1999 bomb attacks in Moscow that led to a war in the Russian breakaway republic of Chechnya.[1] Five days later, Rybkin appeared in Kiev. He stated later that he had been kidnapped and drugged by Russian FSB agents [2] who lured him to Ukraine promising to arrange meeting with the former Chechen leader Aslan Maskhadov. Upon arrival he was offered refreshments in the apartment, at which point he became "very drowsy." After being unconscious, he woke up on 10 February. Upon waking, he was shown a videotape in which he was performing "revolting acts" conducted by "horrible perverts". He was told that the tape would be made public if he continued with his presidential campaign.[3] According to Alexander Litvinenko, the FSB agents apparently treated Rybkin with their standard truth drug.[2][4][5]

Rybkin said he feared for his safety if he returned to Russia, and whilst he initially continued the campaign from overseas, on 5 March 2004, he withdrew from the race, saying he did not want to be part of "this farce," as he called the elections.[6]

References

  1. ↑ Politkovskaya, Anna (2007) A Russian Diary: A Journalist's Final Account of Life, Corruption, and Death in Putin's Russia
  2. 1 2 Alex Goldfarb and Marina Litvinenko. Death of a Dissident: The Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko and the Return of the KGB. New York: Free Press, 2007. ISBN 978-1416551652.
  3. ↑
  4. ↑
  5. ↑
  6. ↑
Political offices
Preceded by
Ruslan Khasbulatov
as Chairman of the Supreme Soviet
Mikhail Rodzianko
as Chairman of the State Duma of Russian Empire		 Chairman of the State Duma
14 January 1994 – 17 January 1996		 Succeeded by
Gennadiy Seleznyov
Preceded by
Alexander Lebed		 Secretary of the Security Council of Russia
19 October 1996–2 March 1998		 Succeeded by
Andrei Kokoshin


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