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Vladislav Yuryevich Surkov (Russian: Владислав Юрьевич Сурков; born 21 September 1964[1]) is a Russian politician and businessman. He was First Deputy Chief of the Russian Presidential Administration from 1999 to 2011, during which time he was often viewed as the main ideologist of the Kremlin who proposed and implemented the concept of sovereign democracy in Russia. From December 2011 until May 2013, Surkov served as the Russian Federation's Deputy Prime Minister.[2][3] After his resignation, Surkov returned to the Presidential Executive Office and became a personal adviser of Vladimir Putin on relationships with Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Ukraine.[4] He was removed from this duty by presidential order in February 2020.[5]
Journalists in Russia and abroad have speculated that Surkov writes under the pseudonymNathan Dubovitsky, although the Kremlin denies it.[12][13][14][15]
Early years
According to Surkov's official biography and birth certificate, he was born on 21 September 1964 in Solntsevo, Lipetsk Oblast, Russian SFSR.[16][17][18] As per other statements, he was born in 1962 in Shali, Checheno-Ingush ASSR.[19][20] His birth name is sometimes reported to be Aslambek Dudayev.[21][22] His parents, the ethnic Russian Zinaida Antonovna Surkova (born 1935) and the ethnic Chechen Yuriy ("Andarbek") Danil'bekovich Dudayev (1942–2014), were school teachers in Duba-yurt, Checheno-Ingush ASSR.[19][23]
After his military training, Surkov was accepted[when?] into the Moscow Institute of Culture for a five-year program in theater direction, but spent only three years there.[30] Surkov graduated from Moscow International University with a master's degree in economics in the late 1990s.[30]
Business career (1988–1998)
In the late 1980s, when the government lifted the ban against private businesses, Surkov started out in business. In 1987, he became head of the advertising department of Mikhail Khodorkovsky's businesses. From 1991 to April 1996, he held key managerial positions in advertising and PR departments of Khodorkovsky's Bank Menatep. From March 1996 to February 1997, he was at Rosprom, and since February 1997 with Mikhail Fridman's Alfa-Bank.[30][31] At Alfa-Bank, he worked closely with Oleg Markovich Govorun (Russian: Олег Маркович Говорун; born 15 January 1969 Bratsk, USSR).[32][33]
In September 2004, Surkov was elected president of the board of directors of the oil products transportation company Transnefteproduct, but was instructed by Russia's prime minister Mikhail Fradkov to give up the position in February 2006.[34]
Deputy Chief of the Russian Presidential Administration 1999–2011
After a brief career as a director for public relations on the Russian television ORT channel from 1998 to 1999, Surkov was appointed Deputy Chief of Staff of the President of the Russian Federation in 1999.[13] According to the Dossier Center, Surkov has been a strong supporter of the far right also known as the ultraright since at least 2000.[35]
During the beginning of his time in this role, Surkov's main appearances in public and in international media were as a public relations mouthpiece of the Kremlin. In August 2000, he confirmed that Gazprom would buy Vladimir Gusinsky's Media-Most, which at the time owned the only independent, nationwide Russian television channel, NTV.[36] In September 2002, he stated on behalf of the Kremlin that they had decided not to return the statue of KGB founder Felix Dzerzhinsky that had been torn down during the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.[37] After the 2003 Russian Duma elections, when the president's United Russia party got the most seats at 37.6%, Surkov delivered the Kremlin's enthusiastic response, saying "We are living in a new Russia now."[38]
In March 2004, he was additionally appointed as aide to the president.[39]
Since 2006, Surkov has advocated a political doctrine he has called sovereign democracy, to counter democracy promotion conducted by the US and European states.[40] Judged by some Western media as controversial, this view has not generally been shared by Russian media and the Russian political elite.[41] Surkov sees this concept as a national version of the common political language that will be used when Russia talks to the outside world.[41] As the most influential ideologist of "sovereign democracy", Surkov gave two programmatic speeches in 2006: "Sovereignty is a Political Synonym of Competitiveness" in February[42] and "Our Russian Model of Democracy is Titled Sovereign Democracy" in June 2006.[43]
Vladislav Surkov in April 2010
On 8 February 2007, Moscow State University marked the 125th anniversary of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt's birth with a high-level conference "Lessons of the New Deal for Modern Russia and the World" attended, among others, by Surkov and Gleb Pavlovsky. Surkov drew an explicit parallel between Roosevelt and Russian president Putin, praising the legacy of Roosevelt's New Deal, and between the US of the 1930s and present-day Russia. Pavlovsky called on Putin to follow Roosevelt in staying for a third presidential term.[44][45]
According to The Moscow Times, Surkov exerted his influence to have Ramzan Kadyrov appointed as acting Head of the Chechen Republic on 15 February 2007.[10][46] Since this appointment, Kadyrov has gone on to serve two terms in office and has been accused of numerous humans rights abuses.[47]
In October 2009, Surkov warned that opening and modernization of Russia's political system, a need repeatedly stressed by President Dmitry Medvedev, could result in more instability, which "could rip Russia apart".[48]
In September 2011, Mikhail Prokhorov quit the Right Cause party, which he had led for five months. He condemned the party as a puppet of the Kremlin and named Surkov the "main puppet master of the political process" (Russian: главным кукловодом политического процесса), according to a report in Russian-language magazine Korrespondent picked up by The New York Times.[49][50] Prokhorov had hoped that Surkov would be fired from the Kremlin, but the Kremlin stood behind Surkov and said he would not disappear from the political stage.[51] At that time, Reuters described Surkov in a profile as the Kremlin's 'shadowy chief political strategist', one of the most powerful men in the Kremlin and considered a close ally of then-Prime Minister Putin.[7]
Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Modernisation 2011–2013
On 28 December 2011, Medvedev reassigned Surkov to the role of Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Modernisation" in a move interpreted by many to be fallout from the controversial Russian parliamentary elections of 2011.[52] At that time, Surkov described his past career as follows:[53] "I was among those who helped Boris Yeltsin to secure a peaceful transfer of power; among those who helped President Putin stabilize the political system; among those who helped President Medvedev liberalize it. All the teams were great."
Surkov giving a speech during the Fifth Congress of the Nashi Youth Movement
During this time, Surkov helped create some pro-government youth movements, including Nashi. He met with their leaders and participants several times and gave them lectures on the political situation.[54][55] Nashi has been compared by Edward Lucas as the Putin government's version of the Soviet-era Komsomol.[56]
When Putin returned to the presidency in 2012, Surkov became marginalized as Putin "pursued a path of open repression over the cunning manipulation favoured by Surkov". As a Deputy Prime Minister, Surkov criticized the Investigative Committee of Russia, which led investigations into opposition leaders, rather than the general prosecutor's office. The Committee stated he offered to resign on 7 May 2013, whereas Surkov stated he offered to resign on 28 April 2013. Putin accepted it on 8 May 2013.[57][58]
It came out in March 2014 that during Putin's first two terms as president, Surkov was regarded as the Kremlin's "Éminence grise" (or "Grey Cardinal"[61]) due to crafting Russia's system of "sovereign democracy" and directing its propaganda principally through control of state run television.[62]
On 21 March 2014, the European Union (EU) placed Surkov on its sanction list barring him from entering the EU and freezing his assets in the EU.[75][76]
In February 2015, Ukrainian authorities accused Surkov of organizing snipers to kill protesters and police during the Ukrainian Euromaidan in January 2014.[77][78][79] This accusation was dismissed by the Russian government as "absurd".[59]
Despite being barred from entering the EU, Surkov visited Greece's Mount Athos as a part of Putin's delegation to the holy site in May 2016.[80]
Jon Roozenbeek's doctoral work is based on the failure of Russian propaganda to implant a "Novorossiyan" identity in the occupied territories of Ukraine. The implantation of this idea was the focus of Surkov.[81]
In October 2016, Ukrainian hacker group CyberHunta released over a gigabyte of emails and other documents alleged to belong to Surkov.[82] The 2,337 emails belonged to the inbox of Surkov's office email account, prm_surkova@gov.ru.[83] The Kremlin suggested that the leaked documents were fake.[84]
The emails illustrate Russian plans to politically destabilize Ukraine and the coordination of affairs with major opposition leaders in separatist east Ukraine.[85] The document release included a document sent by Denis Pushilin, former Chairman of the People's Council of the Donetsk People's Republic, listing casualties that occurred from 26 May to 6 June 2014.[83] It also included a 22-page outline of "a plan to support nationalist and separatist politicians and to encourage early parliamentary elections in Ukraine, all with the aim of undermining the government in Kiev."[86]
On 11 February 2019, Surkov published in Nezavisimaya Gazeta the article "The Long State of Putin", which describes the main points of the term "Putinism" proposed by him.[87] The article caused a stir in the media.[88][89][90]
On 18 February 2020, Surkov was removed from his role of advisor.[5] On 26 February 2020, he gave an interview to Aktualnyie kommentarii where he stated that he actually resigned from the post on his own initiative and the reasons were correctly disclosed by Russian journalists Vladimir Solovyev[91] and Alexei Venediktov.[92] Surkov added that he was primarily involved with Donbas and Ukraine, but since the "context" had changed he decided to leave.[92] He claimed that "There is no Ukraine", adding that "coercion to fraternal relations by force is the only method that has historically proven its effectiveness in the Ukrainian direction. I do not think that some other will be invented".[92][93][94]
Before the 2010 U.S.-Russia "Civil Society to Civil Society" (C2C) summit, a U.S. House of Representatives representative for the state of Florida's 27th district, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R), was the lead signatory of a written petition which called upon the Obama administration to suspend U.S. participation in the summit until Surkov was replaced as a delegate for the Russian side. In an interview with Radio Free Europe, Ros-Lehtinen explained that she objected to Surkov's attendance as she views him as "one of the main propagators of limiting freedom of speech in Russia, intimidating Russian journalists and representatives of opposition political parties".[96] However, the summit went ahead despite her objections.[97] A 2007 Open Source Center "Media Aid" document identifies the Russian ura.ru information website as reportedly having links to Surkov.[98]
In May 2013 after his dismissal as Deputy Prime Minister, Surkov was characterized by The Economist as the engineer of "a system of make-believe", "a land of imitation political parties, stage-managed media and fake social movements".[101]
On 13 August 2009, Russian business newspaper Vedomosti reported that an anonymous source told them that a recently released novel, Close to Zero (Russian: Околоноля), was written by Surkov under the pseudonym Natan Dubovitsky (Russian: Натан Дубовицкий) in the magazine Russian Pioneer (Russian: Русский пионер). It was soon realized that the pseudonym is almost identical to the name of Surkov's second and current wife, Natalya Dubovitskaya (Russian: Наталья Дубовицкая).[12]
In a subsequent edition of Close to Zero, Surkov would write a preface to it under his real name, but would continue to deny writing the main text. In the preface, Surkov writes two seemingly contradictory statements: "The author of this novel is an unoriginal Hamlet-obsessed hack"; and, "this is the best book I have ever read".[9]
The January 2011 debut performance of the theatrical version of the novel, directed by Kirill Serebrennikov, was attended by Surkov.[107]
The novel, which has the English language subtitle "gangsta fiction", has as its protagonist a man by the name of Yegor Samokhodov. Samokhodov's occupation is public relations, and he is tasked with managing the reputation of a regional governor. First, he hires a writer to ghostwrite a piece of poetry to be published under the name of the governor without disclosing the ghostwriting, so that the governor may win an award and seem clever to his constituents. He then bribes a newspaper reporter to "correct" stories that portray the governor negatively, such as allegations that a factory of a relative of his is releasing chemicals into the air that harm local children.[15]
The publishing houses and public relations firms in the novel are intensely violent, with each company having its own gang and turf wars being fought over the rights to publish or represent such acclaimed Russian authors as Alexander Pushkin and Vladimir Nabokov.[9] Peter Pomerantsev described the book as "exactly the sort of book Surkov's youth groups burn on Red Square."[9]The Economist wrote that the novel "expos[ed] the vices of the system [Surkov] himself had created".[108]
Other works authored under the name Natan Dubovitsky, all published in Russian Pioneer, that are rumored to be the work of Surkov are:
The Little Car and the Bicycle [gaga saga] (Russian: Машинка и Велик [gaga saga], romanized: Mashinka i Velik [gaga saga]) (2012)[109]
In contemporary Russia, unlike the old USSR or present-day North Korea, the stage is constantly changing: the country is a dictatorship in the morning, a democracy at lunch, an oligarchy by suppertime, while, backstage, oil companies are expropriated, journalists killed, billions siphoned away. Surkov is at the centre of the show, sponsoring nationalist skinheads one moment, backing human rights groups the next. It's a strategy of power based on keeping any opposition there may be constantly confused, a ceaseless shape-shifting that is unstoppable because it's indefinable.
In 2019, Surkov boasted that "Russia is playing with the West's minds", "They don't know how to deal with their own changed consciousness."[115]
Surkov has had articles written about him and his influence on the war in Donbas by Japanese academics curious about his leaked emails and his "political technology".[116]
In June 2021, Henry Foy published an interview with Surkov in the Financial Times in which he said "Surkov is a founding father of Putinism, and one of its key enablers." In Foy's telling, Surkov "stage-manage[d] the 2014 annexation of Crimea and Russia's involvement in the ongoing war in eastern Ukraine." Foy credited Surkov with the observation that an overdose of freedom is lethal to a state, while the latter compares Putin with Octavian. Surkov described the Minsk agreements as an act that "legitimised the first division of Ukraine". He said he was "proud that I was part of the reconquest [of Ukraine]. This was the first open geopolitical counter-attack by Russia [against the west] and such a decisive one." Surkov exhibited profound and naked cynicism:[117]
Most people need their heads to be filled with thoughts. You are not going to feed people with some highly intellectual discourse. Most people eat simple foods. Not the kind of food we are having tonight. Generally most people consume very simple-meaning beliefs. This is normal. There is haute cuisine, and there is McDonald's. Everyone takes advantage of such people all over the world.
Surkov has married twice. His first marriage, to Yulia Petrovna Vishnevskaya (Russian: Юлия Петровна Вишневская, née Lukoyanova, Лукоянова) in 1987, ended in divorce in 1996.[120] In his second marriage, Surkov married Natalya Dubovitskaya (Russian: Наталия Дубовицкая), his secretary when he was an executive at the Menatep bank, in a civil ceremony in 2004.[120][121]
Surkov has four children: Artyom (Russian: Артём; born 1987), the biological child of Yulia he adopted during his first marriage;[121] and Roman (Russian: Роман; born 2001), Maria (Russian: Мария; born 2003), and Timur (Russian: Тимур; born 2010), biological children of himself and Natalya.[121]
Surkov has composed songs[9] and written texts for the Russian rock-musician Vadim Samoylov, ex-member of the band Agata Kristi (Russian: Агата Кристи). He speaks English and is fond of poets of the Beat Generation such as Allen Ginsberg.[7]
Honours and awards
Order of Merit for the Fatherland, 3rd class (13 November 2003) – for outstanding contribution to strengthening Russian statehood and many years of diligent work
Gratitude of the President of the Russian Federation (18 January 2010, 12 June 2004 and 8 July 2003) – for active participation in the preparation of the President's address to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation
Medal of PA Stolypin, 2nd class (21 September 2011)
Diploma of the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation (2 April 2008) – for active support and substantial assistance in organizing and conducting the elections of the President of the Russian Federation
State Councillor of the Russian Federation, 1st class[122]
^ abRyzhkov, Vladimir (7 October 2013). "Same Old Kremlin, Same Old Surkov". The Moscow Times. Archived from the original on 19 October 2017. Retrieved 20 November 2016. Surkov played the decisive role in raising Kadyrov to his current post. For his part, Kadyrov refers to Surkov as his "sworn brother" and even has a portrait of Surkov hanging in his office in Grozny." and "...a person's formal job title in Russia never matches the actual authority they wield.
^ abGlikin, Maksim; Kholmogorova, Vera (13 August 2009). "Владислав Сурков стал писателем?" [Has Vladislav Surkov become a writer?]. Vedomosti. Archived from the original on 11 August 2021. Retrieved 20 November 2016. Published novel Close to Zero was probably written by Vladislav Surkov. (Издан роман «Околоноля», написанный скорее всего Владиславом Сурковым.)
^"Сурков Владислав Юрьевич – досье, все новости" [Vladislav, Surkov Yurevich – dossier and news]. Перебежчик. Archived from the original on 8 May 2021. Retrieved 14 April 2020. According to one information source, he served in the artillery of the Southern Group of Forces in Hungary. According to another, he served in the special forces of the Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU). (По одной информации, службу он проходил в артиллерийской части Южной группы войск в Венгрии. По другой – в спецназе Главного разведывательного управления (ГРУ).)
^"Владислав Сурков покинет "Транснефтепродукт"" [Vladislav Surkov leaves "Transnefteprodukt"]. Коммерсантъ (Kommersant) (in Russian). No. 25. 13 February 2006. p. 13. Archived from the original on 18 February 2020. Retrieved 20 November 2016. By an order signed by Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov, the Board of Directors of "Transnefteprodukt", Deputy of the Presidential Executive Office Vladislav Surkov, resigns. (По подписанному премьером Михаилом Фрадковым распоряжению, совет директоров ОАО "Транснефтепродукт" покинет возглавлявший его заместитель руководителя администрации президента РФ Владислав Сурков.)
^"Мемория. Владислав Сурков" [Vladislav Surkov fact sheet]. polit.ru (in Russian). 21 September 2015. Archived from the original on 18 August 2021. Retrieved 20 November 2016.
^13 May 2013 (13 May 2013). "Сурков и Кадыров" [Surkov and Kadyrov]. www.forbes.ru. Forbes Russia. Archived from the original on 20 March 2017. Retrieved 20 November 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
^Sirke Mäkinen, "Surkovian narrative on the future of Russia: making Russia a world leader." Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics 27#2 (2011): 143–165.
^Maya Atwal and Edwin Bacon. "The youth movement Nashi: contentious politics, civil society, and party politics." East European Politics 28.3 (2012): 256–266.
^Lucas, Edward (2014). The new cold war: Putin's Russia and the threat to the West (3rd ed.). New York: St. Martin's Press. pp. 102–105. ISBN9781137472618.: 102
^"Ukraine-related Designations". United States Department of the Treasury. 20 March 2014. Archived from the original on 31 May 2020. Retrieved 4 March 2016.
^President of The United States (10 March 2014). "Ukraine EO13660"(PDF). Federal Register. Archived(PDF) from the original on 19 October 2017. Retrieved 4 March 2016.
^President of The United States (19 March 2014). "Ukraine EO13661"(PDF). Federal Register. Archived(PDF) from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 20 February 2016.
^Putin's aide Surkov pulled the strings as snipers shot at Maidan protesters – Ukraine's SBUArchived 21 February 2015 at the Wayback Machine. belsat.eu. 20 February 2015. According to SBU director Nalyvaichenko, they have identified some of the shooters and "as part of this case we have job titles, last names, copies of passports, dates of their entry and departure, their telephone providers and places of accommodation, [we know] how president Putin's adviser Surkov was coordinating their actions in Kyiv,"
^ abcChesnakov, Aleksei (26 February 2020). "Surkov: I am interested to act against the reality" [Сурков: мне интересно действовать против реальности]. Actualcomment.ru (in Russian). Archived from the original on 24 February 2022. Retrieved 27 February 2020. Принуждение силой к братским отношениям — единственный метод, исторически доказавший эффективность на украинском направлении. Не думаю, что будет изобретен какой-то другой.
^Тирмастэ, Мария-Луиза; Тирмастэ, Мария-Луиза (12 September 2010). "У правозащитников готово прошение об отставке". Газета "Коммерсантъ" (in Russian). No. 228. p. 3. Archived from the original on 14 September 2014. Retrieved 15 March 2023.
^Dementsova, Emilia (24 January 2011). ""Околоноля": чёрное на чёрном" ["Close to Zero": Black on black]. Komsomolskaya Pravda (in Russian). Archived from the original on 26 September 2020. Retrieved 20 November 2016. And recently I attended a Kirill Serebrennikov play based on the novel "Close to Zero", the debut of which was attended by Surkov himself. (И вот недавно вышел спектакль Кирилла Серебреникова по роману «Околоноля», на премьере которого присутствовал и сам Сурков.)
Mäkinen, Sirke (June 2011). "Surkovian Narrative on the Future of Russia: Making Russia a World Leader". Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics. 27 (2): 143–165. doi:10.1080/13523279.2011.564084. S2CID154080566.
Sakwa, Richard (September 2008). "Russian Political Culture Through the Eyes of Vladislav Surkov: Guest Editor's Introduction". Russian Politics & Law. 46 (5): 3–7. doi:10.2753/RUP1061-1940460500. S2CID143511011.
Gatehouse, Gabriel (24 May 2019). "The Puppet Master: The story of the most powerful man you've never heard of". BBC Radio 4. BBC. Archived from the original on 26 April 2022. Retrieved 26 April 2022. (Omnibus edition); Available now. Reporter Gabriel Gatehouse speaks fluent Russian and has access to a vast cache of leaked emails from Surkov's Kremlin office. Using these, plus archive and sources gained over a decade of covering Russia and its wars, Gatehouse goes in search of the man pulling the strings.
"Surkov: In His Own Words". The Wall Street Journal. 18 December 2006. Archived from the original on 8 February 2011. Retrieved 26 April 2022. The following are excerpts from public statements, speeches and articles by Vladislav Surkov. Translated by The Wall Street Journal.
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