Evgeny Primakov Jr. international review. Death of son and wife

The ex-Prime Minister of Russia hid his real father all his life

The ex-Prime Minister of Russia hid his real father all his life

Only in his last autobiographical book did Evgeny PRIMAKOV shed light on his childhood. The former politician and intelligence officer calls a certain NEMCHENKO the father. Before that, other surnames were found in various sources - KIRSHENBLAT and BUKHARIN. Express Gazeta conducted its own investigation.

In memoirs Evgeny Primakov wrote: "My father's surname Nemchenko- My mother told me about it. I never saw him. They parted ways with their mother, in 1937 he was shot. From birth, I bore my mother's surname - Primakov.

In Tbilisi, where Yevgeny Maksimovich partially spent his childhood, his distant relatives and friends remained. It was they who told the truth about the "secret father" of the former prime minister and head of foreign intelligence.

committed suicide

In the birth certificate in the column "Paternity" Primakov has a dash. According to relatives, Evgeny Maksimovich's mother, Anna Yakovlevna, married an engineer in her youth Maxim Rozenberg, so the patronymic of the son is Maksimovich. Primakov, however, did not mention this name in his memoirs.

Because of this dash, many versions have appeared, says an elderly Tbilisi friend of the family Tamara Chelidze. - In one book they wrote that Evgeny Maksimovich was the son Bukharin. This was assumed after Primakov said that his biological father was shot in 1937. Some external similarity of both confirmed this version. However, the same complete nonsense version that his father is a doctor David Kirshenblat.The great-granddaughter of Kirshenblat, whose mother grew up with Eugene, shared her memories.“Primakov is his mother's surname,” says Karina. - Evgeny Maksimovich writes everywhere that her mother's name was Anna Yakovlevna, but her relatives called her Hanoi. And his grandmother on the mother's side was called Berta Abramovna. Khana was a well-known gynecologist in Tbilisi. Evgeny Maksimovich also changed his place of birth for some reason: he was born not in Kyiv, but in Moscow. According to relatives, Kirshenblat was still related to Yevgeny. He lost his wife early and married the governess of his two children, Faina, who had a sister, Khana, Primakov's mother. Since Zhenya's mother had only an 11-meter room in a communal apartment, he grew up in his aunt's house.

Kirshenblat treated Zhenya like his own, Karina assures. - And the mother's husband, Maxim Rosenberg, Evgeny Maksimovich does not mention for certain reasons. The fact is that Khana and Maxim did not have children for a long time. And she, as her mother said, had an affair with another man. When Zhenya was nine months old, Rosenberg committed suicide. The tragedy happened during a family dinner: Khana and Maxim had a fight, the husband got up from the table, ran down the corridor and jumped out of the window. Kirshenblat was just returning home and found the body of Maxim on the street: he died in his arms. Khan after the death of Maxim never married again. But she was a bright woman ...

Beal of Laura's fans

Primakov met his first wife in Tbilisi. Laura grew up in the family of her father's sister, an opera singer. Nadezhda Kharadze and her husband - conductor Alexis Dimitriadi because her parents were shot.

At the age of 14, Zhenya entered the Baku Naval School, but fell ill and returned to Tbilisi, - said Laura's cousin, a professor at the Conservatory Nana Dimitriadi. That's why he graduated from high school. And when he entered the Institute of Oriental Languages ​​at Moscow State University, everyone was perplexed. From Moscow, he often came to Tbilisi, where he still had friends. Zhenya was familiar with Laura, and became close on vacation in Gagra. They were 19 then. He often fought because of Laura. Once my mother could not stand it and said: “Either you get married, or you, Zhenya, leave.” Laura was charming, played the piano beautifully, could turn anyone's head. She then left the Tbilisi Polytechnic University, where she studied at the Faculty of Chemistry, transferred to the Institute. Mendeleev and left for Moscow. They celebrated the wedding in Moscow, in a narrow circle. They lived modestly with Zhenya: they rented a corner in the janitor's room. When the first-born son Sasha was born, he was brought to his grandmother - Anna Yakovlevna ... Laura has always been by Zhenya's side. I went with my beloved to Egypt, where he was sent as a correspondent. Despite a congenital heart disease and a doctors ban on giving birth to a second child, after returning from Egypt, she made her husband happy with her daughter Nana. went to the hockey game. But family is another matter. He did not experience a single political situation as much as the death of his son.

“Alexander died at 26,” recalls Nana Dimitriadi. - Handsome, graduated from MGIMO, completed an internship in the USA. But during the May Day demonstration, he became ill ... When they did an autopsy, it turned out that the guy had suffered two micro-infarcts. Six months before that, a dark story happened in Moscow. He went out with a friend to smoke, and he was beaten. Sasha then had to restore his nose ...

Another unpleasant story that happened to Sasha is the loss of his dissertation. It is possible that these events caused heart problems.

Nana, like her parents, was very upset by the death of her brother. She named him after him. eldest daughter Alexandra. - Zhenya then took to drink, - says a friend of the Primakov family - Tamara Chelidze. - I spent long hours every day at the Kuntsevo cemetery. Grief brought him even closer to his friend, the director George Danelia, whose son Nikolai almost at the same time died under strange circumstances. Their sons knew each other, and they are buried in the same cemetery... Granddaughter Sasha became a translator and photographer, and then started breeding dachshunds. She never boasted of her grandfather: she dressed simply, almost never put on makeup. She married a good intelligent boy - Anton Lenin. “Grandfather spoiled his granddaughter Sasha, but not so much,” said Karina, a distant relative of the Primakovs. - And here is the grandson of Eugene, who was born from the son of Sasha (TV journalist Evgeny Sandro. - N. M.), bought several apartments. When the grandson got divorced, the apartment remained with his wife, and a new one was bought for him.

daughter blessed

Distant relatives of the Primakovs remember their first wife, Laura, as a hospitable woman who was fond of antiques and theater.

She drove an old "Zaporozhets" and did not want to get into an expensive car, - said her Tbilisi friend Sofiko. - Attended all general premieres. She died when she and her husband were going to the concert. Gennady Khazanov. Heart. She died six years after the death of her son, in 1986. At the Kuntsevsky cemetery, Evgeny then bought four places at once. He always said that he wanted to be buried next to his son and wife. We were surprised that the second wife, Irina, recently agreed to be buried at Novodevichy. Perhaps the authorities decided so ... After Laura's death, many wanted to marry him, but for a long time nothing worked, until a young blue-eyed Irina appeared in his life - his personal doctor. Because of a new love, she divorced her husband. Once Irina admitted: “He is so beautifully caring! Now they can't do that." And what poems he dedicated to her! Irina and Evgeny Maksimovich asked for blessings from Nana. She was friends with Primakov's daughter, and she was not against it. When the relatives got to know the new wife closer, they accepted her into the family. It is interesting that Anna, Irina's daughter from her first marriage, took the surname Primakov. If Yevgeny Primakov did not leave a will, not only the widow, children from two marriages, grandchildren, but also illegitimate offspring can claim the inheritance of Yevgeny Primakov.- Primakov has an illegitimate daughter Anya, he officially introduced her at one of his anniversaries. He helped Anya all her life. She looks like the daughter of Evgeny Maksimovich - Nana, - Karina shared.

AND THIS IS ALL WITH HIM

Remembering Yevgeny PRIMAKOV, journalists mainly noted two of his achievements. A sensational U-turn over the Atlantic on March 24, 1999 (when the NATO fascists bombed peaceful Yugoslav cities) and the salvation of Russian foreign intelligence. In the fateful 1991, Primakov saved her from large-scale purges. But for some reason not a single media outlet appreciated Yevgeny Maksimovich's initiatives as prime minister. Our columnist Elena KREMENTSOVA tried to remember what Primakov managed to do as head of government in just 8 months, when the country after the 1998 default needed emergency resuscitation. There were many merits, and perhaps the most important are these:

* Prevented a repeat of the bloody October 1993. MPs demanded resignation Yeltsin and began the impeachment process. There was a threat of dissolution of parliament or abandonment of market relations. Primakov through compromises, he removed the tension between the president, the liberal government and the State Duma, calmed the people.

* He did not succumb to the pressure of the governors and the military-industrial complex, who demanded money from the government, and refused to turn on the printing press, preventing inflation from spinning up. * He forbade issuing loans to anyone who received them and did not return them. And he kept the ruble from falling further.* He proved that the state has enough money and there is no need to increase debts. For the first time since the collapse of the USSR, his government drew up an honest budget in which revenues exceeded expenses.* Although it carried out the devaluation of the ruble, it immediately took a number of tax measures that benefited the countryside and small towns of Russia, where the remnants of existing production were concentrated.* For the first time Since August 1991, salaries and pensions have been paid on time.

* He restored the work of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Russia, which, after eight years of Yeltsin's reforms, fell into extreme decline and served the "opportunistic political preferences" of the rarely sober head of state and his team. * He insisted on the development of Soviet Islamic studies and the expansion of domestic peaceful Islam to the countries of the Arab world. And in every possible way promoted the interests of our country in the Middle East. For this alone, Yevgeny Maksimovich deserved a monument during his lifetime.

Estimate!

In 1975, Primakov brought billionaire David Rockefeller to Tbilisi. And I decided to invite him to visit relatives. Calling his mother-in-law, Evgeny Maksimovich said: "We'll drop by in the evening!" The woman began to panic: they put the apartment in order in a fire order, set the table, but they did not manage to repair the entrance. Then the guards, who arrived ahead of time, got out of the situation: they turned off the light in the entrance so that the walls could not be seen. Assessing the set table, Rockefeller went to a portrait of Ernest Hemingway hanging on the wall. Pushing the picture aside, he saw a faded spot on the wallpaper: “So it really hung ...”

Bear in mind

CPSU member Yevgeny Primakov was never a religious person, but at the end of his life he came to God and was baptized.

Primakov loved tricks

The politician showed children circus tricks

In 2000, Yevgeny Maksimovich stopped by a politician Stepan Sitaryan in Yerevan, - said the businessman Narine Davtyan. - He had not only many friends among Georgians, but also Armenians. Stepan Sitaryan was my relative. Yevgeny Primakov saw that my 6-year-old son had strabismus. He immediately called the ophthalmologist Svyatoslav Fedorov and instructed to begin treatment immediately. Doctors began to treat their son on time according to the new methods of that time, and thanks to this, they managed to avoid surgery. He loved children: he immediately began to show my children different tricks: circus tricks with falling coins from the sleeves. My daughter, who is fond of painting, then painted a portrait: Primakov is in a turban, and coins are falling from his sleeve. We solemnly presented it to him.

Evgeny Maksimovich Primakov was born on October 29, 1929 in Kyiv - died on June 26, 2015 in Moscow. Soviet and Russian economist, orientalist-Arabist, political and statesman, Doctor of Economics (1969), Professor (1972), Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary (1996).

Chairman of the Board of Directors of OAO RTI; President, Chairman of the Council "Mercury Club"; Head of the Center for Situational Analysis of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1979; corresponding member 1974). Laureate of the State Prize of the USSR (1980) and the State Prize of Russia (2014).

Member of the CPSU since 1959. Member of the Central Committee of the CPSU (1989-1990; candidate member of the Central Committee in 1986-1989).

Member of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences, member of the Presidium of the Council under the President Russian Federation in Science and Education, Member of the Scientific Expert Council under the Chairman of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Russian International Affairs Council. Chairman of the Council of the Union of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (1989-1990), Head of the Central Intelligence Service of the USSR (1991), Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Russia (1991-1996), Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation (1996-1998), Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation (1998-1999 ), President of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (2001-2011). Deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation of the III convocation (2000-2001).

short biography Evgeny Maksimovich Primakov:

There is no official information about the father, according to unofficial published data, he was repressed three months after the birth of his son.

Mother - Kirshenblat Anna Yakovlevna (1896-1972), worked as an obstetrician-gynecologist. Immediately after the birth of the child, she returned to Tbilisi, where her family lived.

Primakov spent his childhood and youth in the capital of Georgia, but he studied in Marneuli, then went to study in Moscow.

After the seventh grade of the school in 1944, he entered the naval preparatory school in Baku as a cadet, he practiced on the training ship Pravda.

Graduated from the men's high school in Tbilisi (1948). His favorite subjects were history, literature and mathematics.

He graduated from the Arabic department of the Moscow Institute of Oriental Studies (1953) with a degree in Arab countries and then postgraduate studies at the Faculty of Economics of Moscow State University (1956).

In 1956, Primakov became a senior fellow at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the USSR Academy of Sciences (IMEMO).

At the invitation of the editor-in-chief of the Arabic editorial office of the Main Directorate of Radio Broadcasting to Foreign Countries, Sergei Kaverin, Primakov joined this editorial office. From 1956 to 1962, he worked at the USSR State Radio and Television as a correspondent, executive editor, deputy editor-in-chief, editor-in-chief of broadcasting to Arab countries.

In 1957 he made his first trip to the East - a Mediterranean cruise.

In 1959 he defended his thesis "Export of capital to some Arab countries - a means of ensuring monopoly high profits", candidate of economic sciences.

From September to December 1962 - senior researcher at IMEMO. In 1962, due to a conflict with curators from the Propaganda and Agitation Department of the Central Committee of the CPSU, he submitted a letter of resignation of his own free will.

Since 1962, he worked in the Pravda newspaper as a literary employee, columnist for the Asian and African countries department, since 1965 - Pravda's staff correspondent in the Middle East with a stay in Cairo (where he spent four years), deputy editor of the Asian and African countries department. While serving in the Middle East, he met with politicians: Zwayne, Nimeiri. In 1969, during a trip to Baghdad, he met Saddam Hussein, and later met one of his close associates, Tariq Aziz, who at that time was the editor-in-chief of the Al-Thawra newspaper. During this period, he made many trips to northern Iraq, often visiting the winter residence of Kurdish rebel leader Masoud Barzani.

In 1969 he defended his dissertation on the topic “Social and economic development Egypt", becoming a doctor of economic sciences.

In 1977-1985 he was director of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, since 1979 he was also a professor at the Diplomatic Academy.

In 1985-1989 - director of IMEMO of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

Academician-Secretary of the Department of Economics, since 1988 - Department of Problems of the World Economy and International Relations, member of the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

In February 1988 he was elected to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. In 1989-1991 - People's Deputy of the USSR. In 1989-1990 - Chairman of the Council of the Union of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. In 1990-1991 he was a member of the Presidential Council of the USSR. He was a member of the inner circle of M. S. Gorbachev.

Since March 1991 - Member of the Security Council of the USSR. On August 21, 1991, he flew to Gorbachev in Foros as part of a delegation led by Vice President of the RSFSR Alexander Rutskoi.

From September 30, 1991 - Head of the First Main Directorate of the KGB of the USSR - First Deputy Chairman of the KGB. Refused the rank of general.

In September 1993, he did not support the anti-constitutional decree of President Yeltsin on the dissolution of the Congress people's deputies and the Supreme Council.

January 9, 1996 was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia. The name of Primakov is associated with Russia's transition from Atlanticism to a course towards a multi-vector foreign policy. Diplomat Alexei Fedotov noted that, being in this post, Primakov "returned dignity to Russia's foreign policy and its diplomatic service." The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, E. M. Primakov, pursued a deliberate foreign policy, under him Russia developed partnership relations with the countries of the West and East equally.

On September 10, 1998, President Boris Yeltsin proposed Yevgeny Primakov to the post of Prime Minister of Russia. On September 11, 1998, Primakov's candidacy was approved by the State Duma, 315 out of 450 deputies voted for him, including the opposition faction of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. Before being appointed prime minister, he received an offer from Viktor Chernomyrdin to become his first deputy and agreed to this, but the State Duma did not support the appointment of Viktor Chernomyrdin as prime minister. Having refused for the first time, he subsequently accepted Yeltsin's offer to head the government after the latter refused the same offer to Yuri Maslyukov, declaring that he was ready to work as first deputy for Prime Minister Primakov.

Speaking on September 16, 1998 at an enlarged meeting of the Collegium of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Primakov stated that the arguments about some kind of "red revenge", "the end of the reforms" have not the slightest foundation.

On March 24, 1999, Primakov was on his way to Washington for an official visit. Over the Atlantic, he learned by phone from US Vice President Al Gore that a decision had been made to bomb Yugoslavia. Primakov decided to cancel the visit, ordered the plane to be deployed directly over the ocean and returned to Moscow.

May 12, 1999 Primakov was dismissed from the post of Prime Minister. Primakov's resignation was greeted sharply negatively by the population: 81% of those polled by the Public Opinion Foundation said they did not approve of it. At the same time, the majority of respondents expressed the opinion that Primakov's government managed to achieve economic and political stabilization in Russia.

December 19, 1999 was elected to the State Duma of the Russian Federation of the third convocation. Chairman of the faction "Fatherland - All Russia" (OVR) (in 2000-2001).

Two terms, from December 2001 to February 21, 2011, he served as president of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

One of the leading domestic orientalists, a prominent scientist in the field of world economy and international relations, in particular, in the field of comprehensive development of issues of Russian foreign policy, the study of theory and practice international conflicts and crises, studies of the world civilizational process, global problems, socio-economic and political problems of developing countries.

Honorary Member Russian Academy of Education.

On February 21, 2011, he announced his resignation from the post of President of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. During a press conference dedicated to the forthcoming regular congress of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Primakov recalled that he had already held the position of head of the chamber for two terms. “This is quite enough, I will not be re-elected at this congress,” he said. On March 4, at the VI Congress of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, he officially resigned as president. S. Katyrin, Primakov's deputy, was elected the new head of the CCI.

On November 23, 2012, he was elected Chairman of the Board of Directors of JSC RTI (solutions in the field of integrated communication and security systems).

After a long illness. with state honors.

Family of Evgeny Maksimovich Primakov:

Primakov's cousin is the prominent Soviet biologist Yakov Davidovich Kirshenblat.

In 1951, Primakov married a student at the Georgian Polytechnic Institute, Laura Vasilievna Kharadze (1930-1987), the adopted daughter of NKVD General M. M. Gvishiani.

Children - son Alexander (died in 1981 from a heart attack) and daughter Nana, from whom E. M. Primakov has two granddaughters. Grandson from his son - Evgeny Alexandrovich Primakov (creative pseudonym - Evgeny Sandro, Sandro - in honor of his father (Alexander)), correspondent for Channel One and Russia24, orientalist.

Widow - Irina Borisovna, therapist, former attending physician E. M. Primakova.

The main works of Evgeny Maksimovich Primakov:

"The countries of Arabia and colonialism" (1956);
"International Conflicts of the Sixties and Seventies" (1972, co-authored);
"Egypt: the time of President Nasser" (1974, 2nd ed. 1981; co-authored with I. P. Belyaev);
Middle East: Five Paths to Peace (1974);
"Energy crisis: the approach of Soviet scientists" (1974);
"Energy Crisis in the Capitalist World" (1975, editor);
"Anatomy of the Middle East Conflict" (1978);
"New phenomena in the energy sector of the capitalist world" (1979);
"The East after the collapse of the colonial system" (1982);
"East: the turn of the 80s" (1983);
"The Story of a Collusion: US Middle East Policy in the 1970s - early. 80s.” (1985);
"Essays on the history of Russian foreign intelligence" (in 6 vols, 1996);
"Years in big politics" (1999);
"Eight months plus ..." (2001);
The World After 9/11 (2002);
Confidential: The Middle East on Stage and Behind the Scenes (2006, 2nd ed. 2012);
"Minefield of politics" (2006);
“A world without Russia? What does political myopia lead to” (2009).

Books by Yevgeny Primakov have been translated into many foreign languages. In particular, they were republished abroad in Chinese, Italian, English, Bulgarian, Turkish, Persian, Arabic, German, Japanese, Greek, Serbian, Macedonian, Romanian, French and other languages.

Evgeny Sandro (Primakov)- Russian journalist, TV presenter, historian and orientalist. The grandson of Yevgeny Primakov ... the pseudonym "Evgeny Sandro" ... is a Russian journalist, TV presenter, historian and orientalist. Grandson of Yevgeny Primakov.
Evgeny Primakov was born on April 29, 1976, in Moscow in the family of Alexander Primakov, the son of Yevgeny Primakov, an orientalist. At the age of 5, he lost his father and was raised by his grandfather. To work in the media took pseudonym "Eugene Sandro".
Graduated from the Russian State University for the Humanities - Faculty of History and Philology with a degree in history. He worked at Ekho Moskvy radio, TVS TV channel, was the head of the NTV Middle East bureau, Channel One, worked in the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Turkey and Jordan. Currently, the author and presenter of the International Review program on the Russia-24 TV channel, heads the autonomous non-profit organization Russian Humanitarian Mission.

Evgeny Primakov (Sandro)
Evgeny Alexandrovich Primakov
Occupation: journalist, radio host, TV presenter, orientalist
Date of birth: April 29, 1976
Place of birth: Moscow, USSR
Citizenship: USSR → Russia
Father: Alexander Evgenievich Primakov

Graduated from the Faculty of History and Philology with a degree in History from the Russian State University for the Humanities.

For some time he worked at the radio "Echo of Moscow", in TASS, in the magazine "Kommersant-Dengi", published in the "Obshchaya Gazeta".

He has been working in television since 2002. Initially, he worked on the TVS channel as a war correspondent for the news programs Novosti and Itogi. He was among the journalists of the TV channel covering the Iraqi war - he was a correspondent in Israel.

In May 2003, he left TVS and went to work for the NTV channel. He worked for the programs "Today", "Country and World" and "Profession - Reporter".

From 2005 to 2007 he was the chief of the NTV Middle East Bureau. In his reports, he covered the Second Lebanese War. He retired from the channel in 2007.

From 2007 to 2011, he was a correspondent for the Directorate of Information Programs of Channel One (programs Novosti, Vremya).

Since 2008, he has been the head of the First Channel bureau in Israel.

He worked in the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Turkey and Jordan. Heads the autonomous non-profit organization Russian Humanitarian Mission.

Personal life
Married for the third time, has four daughters.

\Evgeny Primakov Jr.: I saw my grandfather with a cigarette only once - during his persecution in 1999
"Well, well, be Primakov"
“…I dreamed of doing a big interview with your grandfather…”
- Me too.
- Yevgeny Maksimovich even once promised me, he said: call me in two months. It was about two years before his death. Unfortunately, it didn't work out.
- It would be strange if I interviewed him.
- But I made a small conversation with him on the phone. We printed, on the day of death this phonogram was played on the radio. I think most of those who watch TV in recent years know you well. But not like Yevgeny Primakov, but like Yevgeny Sandro. Let's explain why you were Sandro, and why you have now become Primakov...
- I became Yevgeny Sandro because I could not afford to be Yevgeny Primakov at that time. I was and am Yevgeny Primakov, it says so in my passport, but I started in journalism on the Ekho Moskvy radio. And there it was necessary to come up with something like that, because it sounded just idiotic - Yevgeny Primakov - at that time.
Since I am Aleksandrovich, I made a pseudonym from my middle name, (In memory of my father, who died of a heart attack in 1981 - A.G.) And our family's ties with Georgia are known, my grandfather grew up there, my father spent his childhood there , relatives are still there. That's why Sandro- such a normal "radio" pseudonym, a little loud sounding, really.
- No, it was normally perceived on TV, especially from such a region.
- Yes, may be. Then this story arose with the International Review. For a long time I doubted very much, consulted with my grandfather whether it was possible to allow myself to perform under my real name, since this is some kind of respect for the program that we revived, and I thought that I somehow needed to pick up the banner, as they say. And my grandfather and I decided that yes, well, so be it. I stopped being Sandro at some point.
- And earlier, when you turned from Yevgeny Primakov, a young guy into Sandro, did your grandfather object?
- I explained my reasons to him, he agreed with me.
- Are you seriously going to do an interview with your grandfather?
- No. There was such a joke in our brigade. When we started our program, we invited Valentin Zorin to open it. And my colleagues said: let's take an interview with Yevgeny Maksimovich for a complete set. We decided it would be overkill.
"He treated me like a son"
- You said at the memorial service that Yevgeny Maksimovich replaced your father when your dad died ... Did you live in your grandfather's family, in his house?
- No. We are talking, let's say, about some moral guidelines, about some kind of alignment with ... We somehow talk more about me in an interview.
- Let's switch.
- A father is a person to whom you can always turn for advice, who can appreciate the loyalty, infidelity of your actions better, probably, than friends, colleagues and others. It so happened that instead of such authority I had a grandfather. And it seems to me that he treated me not as a grandson, but as closer to his son. He even wrote the last book that he published when he signed it not to Zhenya, but to Sasha. Description...

Evgeny Maksimovich with his son Sasha. 1960s. More pictures are in our photo gallery.

- And then he didn’t get better?
- I said nothing.
- So it remains?
- Yes. He sometimes made a reservation - that's what he called me.
- You also became a journalist, an orientalist. This, apparently, is not accidental, did Evgeny Maksimovich somehow guide you? Maybe he hooked you up?
- It was always valuable to me that he did not attach me anywhere. It was important to me, and I think he appreciated it too. About the orientalist. It sounds loud. It's just how life turned out, it was interesting to me, I got there, stayed there. Of course, books in the house, conversations and so on - all this influenced me. I will not hide that it was sometimes easier for me to work in the East, perhaps than for my colleagues, because there is some recognition.
- I remember an episode in Palestine… You were doing a report there, and Sergei Stepashin told the head of the Palestinian autonomy, Mahmoud Abbas: here is Yevgeny Primakov, the grandson of Yevgeny Primakov. And Dr. Abbas immediately beamed.
- In principle, I interviewed President Abbas before.
So he knew you?
- Yes. But a person has many different activities and concerns, so I think it is unlikely that he is fixed so strongly.
- But I would have fixed on Yevgeny Primakov.
- On the grandfather, naturally. Hardly a grandson.
“I was joking in Baghdad. And they kicked me out of there."
- How did your grandfather raise you, maybe he scolded you for something, instructed you somehow, put you in a corner, punished you?
- No, my grandfather never punished me.
- Not for what it was, or what?
- No, he was just a very patient person. In terms of instructions? He cured me of categoricalness. You know, there is such a feature, mostly in young men, when all judgments are given very simply, they are emotional, not everything is thought out. Here he taught me for a long, long time, gradually that it was not necessary to chop with a saber.
- Can you think of a specific example?
- I have many examples. But since those judgments of mine were wrong...
- On the contrary, I wonder how you got out of the wrong one.
- Listen, I was very emotional about many events in the Middle East, I was inclined to this when I worked in Iraq, for example, in Palestine, in Israel ... war, killing people...
- Recall a specific episode. Just a picture, as they say. What, did you call him or come?
- No, he could call me.

Yevgeny Primakov with his family. More pictures are in our photo gallery.
Photo: E. Primakov's personal archive.
Or did he see your report?
- Most often, this is a reportage, I wrote something on a blog or something like that. He could tell me: why are you so sharp?
- For example?
- Just two weeks before the start of the war in Iraq, I was in Baghdad. This is 2003. I think it was in February. There was a funny situation. The Iraqis really wanted to show the world how they would defeat America when the war started. And in order to show their power and strength, they decided: let's hold a big military parade on Tahrir Square in Baghdad. Then they decided that no, this is fraught with a big parade, all of a sudden something like that, let's hold a demonstration. Then they refused to demonstrate.
As a result, they staged an exhibition of civil defense achievements, which looked absolutely rogue. There was a carpeted tent, where fire extinguishers, shovels, a carious tooth from the nearest dental clinic and a cutaway plastic baby were displayed. They gathered everything they could and stuffed it in there. And a brass band.
And since it was all so helpless, mediocre and stupid, in the report that I issued from there, I frankly mocked them. And it was wrong. And then my grandfather told me.
- Did he call you?
- It was after. We never had any censorship in our family.
- He called and what did he say?
- Didn't call. I have already returned. They kicked me out.
- Kicked out the Iraqi authorities?
- Yes, they did not renew my visa.
- This is despite the fact that this is Yevgeny Primakov?
- Yes. He told me that I was doing stupid things in vain. You know, this was his general attitude to our modern journalism.
- Did you try to convince him?
- Of course, I tried. In this he was unshakable. This even applies to our current program. He was very critical and negative about all sorts of fun on the air, did not understand why this was at all. This is a man, as they say, from an earlier time. Information must be meaningful. And my attempts to explain to him that now it is impossible to present information the way we used to present it, now the viewer must somehow be captivated and entertained ...
- Or the reader.
- Yes, or the reader. He formally agreed with this, but, of course, he did not agree with this. We did one of the programs, there was an episode about Britain. And we called the head of the ensemble of Moscow pipers. Then my grandfather also said to me: what kind of big top is this, why did you do it, why? I tell him: this is an illustration. This is nonsense, not an illustration. It lacked meaning and content. Not only in a specific program, but in general in life, in what he saw around. He carefully watched the news, read newspapers, read the Internet. He was technically savvy in that sense. We even talked on Skype with him when I was leaving somewhere. I have last call skype from him - 27 April. Usually grandfather sat down, called all his relatives and friends, if someone has Skype. He wasn't mossy like that, you know. Technically savvy.
- Did Yevgeny Maksimovich read our newspaper?
- He read your newspaper. I can't say that he...
- Strongly scolded?
- Not really. He agreed with something, disagreed with something, argued with something. Your newspaper is very popular in the country, it is one of the leaders public opinion, so to speak. Naturally, he read it.
So he didn't treat her with disdain?
- Why? He was squeamish, as in general, in principle, to the "yellowing" of the press ...
- No, we have normal paper.
- Do you understand what I'm talking about.
- Yes... Why didn't he give us interviews, he never said anything about it?
- You know, for the last few years, and especially Last year, in general - due to illness - sharply reduced his communication with journalists. He had not been particularly sociable with them before, let's say so. This is not because he did not like journalists, he himself was originally a journalist. It was for exactly the same reason that he wanted to say something meaningful. You know how television, for example, works. The interview is 10 minutes, the person says something, and then we still cut 20 seconds out of it. Content suffered, meanings suffered. It always not only annoyed him, but upset him, I guess. Therefore, he reduced, reduced his communication with journalists. And the last year was physically difficult sometimes.
"He never complained about anything"
- He had a difficult life. This is the loss of loved ones. How was he holding up? Now they say: Primakov is a rock, a block. How did you actually see him?
- That's what they saw. I do not mean that he was cold as a stone to his loved ones. Not at all. He was a very warm person, a very loving grandfather, father, husband. This was not the kind of person who gives out strong emotions to the public. This is an unaffordable luxury.
- But you are not the public, you are close.
- Yes, of course, we are close ... How can I tell you? This is not the character to complain to someone. These are experiences inside basically. Even in difficult times of acute political struggle, he naturally experienced, but to complain about something - no.
- When, roughly speaking, he was “wet” on TV channels in a terrible way ...
- He was very worried about it.
- He was angry, was he ready to launch something into this screen? Or did his whiskey turn silver?
- It was incredible stress for him.
- 98th - 99th years.
- Yes. You know, for all his pragmatism and so on, he was an idealist, in the sense that he did not expect that politics could be so dirty. It was incomprehensible to him, he did not accept it, he saw how some of his friends or people whom he considered friends began to scatter from him. He took the betrayal hard. But he did not run around the room and did not break the dishes. This is not that person.
- And what, he sat in thought? Did he open up to you? Did you give him any advice?
- You see, he could be advised anything, he always made the decision himself. And his decision was such that he would not participate in the squabble. As far as I remember, he did not file any lawsuits against anyone, although he probably had numerous chances to do so and win the courts. There was something like that, there were a couple of some court cases, something was won, he sent money somewhere to an orphanage, as far as I remember.
He could discuss all this emotionally with friends, with relatives, but - "not outside."

Yevgeny Primakov and Muammar Gaddafi. More pictures are in our photo gallery.
Photo: E. Primakov's personal archive.
- Is that why you don't want something "out" now?
- Why is this? It's all past. The only thing is that now, when my family and I received condolences, you know, so many “interesting” people have appeared who used to repeatedly dirty and crap, and who now express ...
- You will not name names?
- Of course not. From our journalistic…
- I even guess who it is. And how did you react to it?
- You know, everyone has the right to say goodbye. And everyone has the right to forgiveness, especially now. The only thing is that I still won’t shake hands with a certain number of people, just as my grandfather didn’t.
- By sending condolences or coming to a memorial service, did they thereby ask Primakov for forgiveness?
I don't know what their motivation is. Sometimes it seems to me that in connection with everything that happened, some people did not bring condolences to the family, but noted, ticked off that they were present. For God's sake, God bless them all.
Listen, this is such a strange topic. I'm talking about this now, and it sounds like I'm listing some grievances. There are no such grievances. In fact, these people are in the general stream and invisible, and we, as it were, did not even fixate on them especially. It's just a matter of words now.
“I miss his balance and analyticity”
- According to the testimony of both close friends and even your relatives, Primakov Jr. somewhere repeats the character of his grandfather, somewhere copies some of his habits. You probably know about it. What did you take from him?
- Listen, I don’t do anything meaningful that I need to adopt this, I never thought about it. If people who knew my grandfather and know me think so, I am very pleased. Because if I took something from him, then it means something good.
- And you yourself can’t say what bribed you in Yevgeny Maksimovich, what you, perhaps, envied, what was in his character, in habits, in traditions, but you didn’t? That you are not yet Yevgeny Primakov, which you would like to become ...
- Naturally, yes, where can I go before him. I would like to take more from him his balance, his disinclination to some quick, lightweight judgments, his analyticity. A huge number of his qualities that I would like to grow in myself further ...

Yevgeny Primakov and ex-President of France Jacques Chirac. More pictures are in our photo gallery.
Photo: E. Primakov's personal archive.
Think of an example that struck you.
- Wrong word "struck". With regard to his friends, relatives, distant relatives, children of his friends, and so on, he was always very attentive. If someone could help, he helped. For example, I found out that he regularly sent some money to distant relatives in Tbilisi. And to the relatives of his wife Laura, my late grandmother. Or the children of his friends, supported someone without advertising it absolutely. I am extremely grateful to my grandfather for the attention to people that was inherent in him. This, of course, needs to be nurtured and nurtured in oneself. Because the essence of a person is not only himself, but also what he cultivated around himself, what he surrounded himself with, and what he does for other people.
- Your life has developed so that you have two grandmothers. If you do not want, you can not answer this question. How was this theme present in the house?
- Irina Borisovna, when she appeared in our family... She somehow sprouted through our family. She so organically became and is a part of it, and she has always respected the memory of Laura Vasilievna Kharadze (the first wife of Evgeny Maksimovich Primakov, died of a heart attack in 1987 - A.G.) so much that there are no conflicts, friction, there could never be any doubt. She is an absolute continuation of her grandfather, a continuation of our family, she is an absolute organic. There is no one: at first it was like this, and then it became like that. Moreover, Laura Vasilievna's friends became Irina Borisovna's friends. It naturally happened.
“... And I inherited books”
- In addition to the surname, name Yevgeny Primakov, character, profession, perhaps the methods of workers, what else did you inherit (naturally, in a figurative sense) from Yevgeny Maksimovich?
- Books. The most important thing is books. One of the first ones he wrote. He wrote that I should continue his work. And this is for me ... Then I was much younger than now.
- Then when is that?
- This is the first book after 1998-99. He wrote, you know, how they write, when ... How many years have passed? 15-16. Then it was completely incomprehensible to me.
- How did the phrase he wrote sound, at least approximately?
- I won't quote. But there - about the fact that this is for my grandson Evgeny Sandro, who will continue ...
- Does he call you Sandro?
- Yes.
- Which will continue ...
- My way. If we talk about heritage, this is such a burden, something that I have already spoken about. Being Yevgeny Primakov, even the youngest, is hard. You will always be compared, and it will always be against you. We are not talking about benefits, but these are very big obligations that you take on.
- What are your plans?
- For me, the most important thing now is a banal routine work done with high quality and with conscience. And I have a job. I am making a TV program. Launched a humanitarian mission. I will make films. I will do what I have. And I will do it well.
- Tell me more about the humanitarian mission.
- I just don't want to promote this topic. I just mean that there is some work that should be done well. It's routine, it's everyday...
- You said at the memorial service: I can handle it.
- I can handle it, of course. Do I have a choice? No.
“So you have to deal with it anyway?”
- Yes. And where will I go from the submarine?
* * *
- Eugene, I'm sorry - maybe the questions are too annoying ...
No, great questions.
- You just shied away from some. They did it on purpose, yes - for balance?
- What answer do you want to hear?
- You have a look now, like that of Evgeny Maksimovich.
- Thank you...

Journalist Yevgeny Primakov during a secret mission in Northern Iraq. 1970s. More pictures are in our photo gallery.
Photo: E. Primakov's personal archive.
WHAT THE GRANDSON OF YEVGENY PRIMAKOV TALKED ABOUT...
“He had the most terrible curse: you are a pot!”
- Did your grandfather ever punish you, didn’t scold you?
- Yeah, I don't remember that. I remember once we went to a sanatorium. I screwed up something there. But I was small, I either broke something there.
- How many years?
- Years 10-11. Broke a vase. And I thought it was just a tragedy. I was so worried that my grandfather said: worry about important things, and this is completely nonsense. Although I expected it to be oh-she-she.
- After that, you continued beating vases?
- Of course not. Grandfather knew how to explain what is good and what is bad, in words so that later he did not want to do bad things.
What other inappropriate actions have you taken? Maybe when they got older.
- How was my grandfather's poem: "I have sinned many times, but I have never betrayed." Everyone has some things they regret in life. Grandfather, for example, because of some of my mistakes (I also don’t want to talk about this more specifically now) could swear, but he had the worst curse ... He said: you are a pot.
- What did that mean?
- Nu, fool, dunce. Pot. This, apparently, is some old, Tbilisi business.
- And often he used this word pot?
- Since he was definitely smarter than all of us, so we were all pots for him always. He just didn't always say it.
- Is it ironic?
- Of course yes.
“Several times I caught my grandfather with a cigarette”
Are you a street kid too? Here I am, for example - from the working outskirts, from the provinces. Or did you have some special academic environment…
- No, I grew up in the 9th district of the Teply Stan.
- Didn't smoke on the sly?
- Well, my grandfather won't scold me for it. I had a period in my life when I smoked. But somehow I don’t get used to it, I just stopped as I started. By the way, someone recently told me that my grandfather also did not get used to smoking, although he used to smoke several times in some stressful situations, but somehow he also stopped, and that’s it.
- In the 98th - 99th year, he did not light up?
- There were several times, I caught him with a cigarette.
- How did you catch it?
- Well, in the sense: oh, what are you doing, what do you have here?
- Was he embarrassed?
- “Cigarette, what. Well, I took it once, not in it.
- He?
- Yes.
- What about booze? He has a Georgian upbringing. And how are you?
- A strange topic - about alcohol.

Yevgeny Primakov during a meeting with Yasser Arafat. More pictures are in our photo gallery.
Photo: E. Primakov's personal archive.
- We are journalists, we have always, at least in our youth, loved to show off, drink. I'm talking about myself. Maybe yours was different.
- There is no such story - to drink or not to drink. This in itself is not just like that: now let's get drunk and have fun. Alcohol is part of the feast. This is not something that people drink from a soap dish in the stairwell. This is a feast, these are companies, this is a conversation, this is something surrounded by some important attributes .. This has always been the case in the family.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
“Our whole family is very grateful to the leadership of the country for organizing the funeral”
- If you don't mind, to finish with this topic... Were you, your loved ones, struck by the very organization of the funeral? I remember how Boris Nikolayevich was seen off at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Viktor Stepanovich Chernomyrdin - in the government complex somewhere in the Mosfilmovskaya area. Evgeny Maksimovich - in the Hall of Columns. There they said goodbye to the general secretaries, leaders ... The executives were in full assembly. Did the organization itself touch you, amaze you, or surprise you? Or is it an inappropriate question, do you think?
- No, that's a good question. The whole family is very grateful to the leadership of the country for organizing the funeral, for the fact that the family was relieved of a huge amount of headache associated with the preparation of this whole affair. Because emotionally it was, of course, hard. And how carefully and respectfully this whole thing was carried out, causes us, the family, great, huge gratitude.
If there is an opportunity to thank you again so that people can hear it, thank you very much.
The scale of the funeral, their decoration (Column Hall, etc.), I spoke about this, we have to realize that Yevgeny Maksimovich does not quite, let's say, belong to his family. And here we have nothing to argue with, disagree with something, we accept everything that happened as it is. Just again, thank you so much.

VERBATIM
... And, finally, about the Middle East, Hezbollah and the USA
- Our special correspondent Daria Aslamova met with one of the leaders of the Shiite paramilitary organization, which enjoys huge influence in the Middle East.
- Hezbollah?
- Yes. This is Sheikh Naeem Kassem. Have you met with him?
- Not with Kassem.
- So, he claims that America herself inspired chaos in the Middle East, she herself is mired, confused and does not know how to get out. And all this, the sheikh believes, poses a threat to Russia and, above all, to North Caucasus. Because the terrorist potential in the Middle East region is growing at an increasing rate. As an expert on this region, on this issue, do you agree with this conclusion?
- The fact is that the Americans in the Middle East have always been driven by a certain situationality. First, the Americans as a kind of decision-making center, there is no such thing - the Americans all got together and decided. This, of course, is a huge number of different elites, groupings within, which contradict each other. Naturally, there are people who try to calculate some strategic things. There are, of course, centers that develop the theory of chaos.
- You somehow even spoke more cheerfully. That's what it means to change the subject.
- It's a reflex. But in general, Americans have always reacted situationally. That is, there is some kind of problem, we must now quickly solve it. Roughly speaking, they need to find some people who want and know how to fight against, say, the government of Syria. And then there is no longer any particular intelligibility in the means. It is also possible to throw weapons there, which it is not clear to whom it falls and as a result fell into ISIS. In a recent interview, Barack Obama admitted, by the way, that the United States was partially responsible for the rise of ISIS.
- Something doesn't look like him.
- It was in a very mild form. He said: yes, it was our mistake. They've done this before as well. We remember, say, the supply of the Mujahideen in Afghanistan, what it has become. I recently saw an excellent article on the Internet from The Independent, if I'm not mistaken. There was an interview with young Osama bin Laden, what a fine fellow he is, how good he is at everything.
Yes, they made this mess. There are, you know, objective grounds for the "Arab Spring"... And then such a kitchen begins, where there are many who want to use what is being prepared there. The Americans were actively involved in this, and firewood was thrown into the firebox, etc. Naturally, now they cannot deal with what they have brewed, it's true.
- With whom and how should Russia cooperate in this region in order to stop this threat? And as a journalist, how do you assess the steps taken by our Foreign Ministry and the Russian leadership to improve the situation and reduce tension in this region?
- How absolutely faithful. There is no other chance to stabilize this region, except to use the support of legitimate governments, which are now under attack by terrorist groups. I mean including Damascus. The world is such that without cooperation with the same United States, if they understand the fallacy of their current policy, it is impossible to achieve stability and appeasement in the Middle East. But, unfortunately, our partners have to go a long way to realize their mistakes. We can only hope that it will happen sooner or later.
- Yevgeny, are these thoughts in tune with the feelings of Yevgeny Maksimovich Primakov? After all, he was with us not so long ago.
- Yes, they are consonant with what he wrote and said many times in interviews.
- He now helps you a lot in this regard (I mean professionally), in understanding the world, in analysis?
- He helped and helps. I think that and will help in this sense.

BY THE WAY
What to do with the legacy of the politician-patriarch?
- In the West, after a person of such magnitude as Yevgeny Maksimovich leaves, museums, research centers, libraries are created. The Nixon Research Center in the USA, we have the Yeltsin Foundation, we have a grandiose museum in the Black Spur of Chernomyrdin. Will there be something according to Primakov, so as not only to perpetuate his memory, but also, let's say, so that the intellectual legacy of Yevgeny Maksimovich would work after his death?
- I think that now it's only 9 days, and it's too early to talk about it. Some points were discussed. So far, only sketches. I think that we will return to discussing the specifics of some after some time.
- Grandfather did not leave a will in this regard?
I don't know about such a will. The only thing that my family and I would like is that if some kind of perpetuation is in the form of funds or museums, it would be some kind of working history, and not just something bronzed. For example, if it is some kind of center, so that situational analyzes are carried out there, so that this center issues some kind of analytical product that will help the country. If these are some kind of charitable foundations… I just don’t know in what form it is being discussed now, what it will be, but in any case it should be something practical and working..
VERY PERSONAL
“Grandfather told me: if you get divorced again, then we will expel you, and leave your wife”
- Tell me, but such difficult moments in life, for example, the attitude towards a woman, the relationship with a woman. You say you were also a street kid. I know how this topic is discussed on the street, as in a family. How could a father say and how a grandfather? In this regard, can you remember? Did you show your girls to Yevgeny Maksimovich?
- Yes, I...
Primakov Jr. smiles, either enigmatically or embarrassingly.
- Judging by your smile, it was?
- I personally have such a strange little story connected with this.
- Finally, we got to some specific things!
- Not a specific story. Just a grandfather ... Nana, the daughter of Evgeny Maksimovich, told him that you made so many mistakes in your life, but the main thing that you know how to do is choose your wives well. It was Nana who was talking about Irina Borisovna. Of course, in this sense, I have been following this path for a long time, since I am already married with a third marriage. This is one of the reasons why I have been called a pot many times.
- Was it a defect of Sandro or grandfather?
- My personal. He never told anyone, did not force him to do this or that. He left the person a chance for error, although he conveyed his point of view.
- Did Evgeny Maksimovich approve of your choice? You don't just...
- I didn't always approve. Either he approved or he was disappointed. But in terms of his attitude towards a woman, it was infinitely respectful. There could never be any dirty jokes and discussions. We all understand that grandfather is still a man who grew up in Tbilisi, in the Caucasus, and some kind of verbal frivolity, it is impossible in principle.
- And you were frivolous in relation to women?
- We're talking about me again.
- Is this an omission of Yevgeny Maksimovich here, maybe? Or how?
- No. This is an opportunity for my growth.
- You understand me correctly. The female half of the editorial staff, if I do not clarify this issue, they simply will not forgive me, they will accuse me of unprofessionalism. In this regard, there are some other precepts of his, let's say, how to treat a woman, how to behave with her. When a man breaks up with a woman, it's the man's or the woman's fault... Did you consult with him at all when you got together and, let's say, got divorced?
- Definitely advised. It just seems to me that the wrong moment and circumstances are to discuss this topic.
- I took the wrong topic ...
- No, no, it just sounds very strange. Indulge in some stories in this context ...

Yevgeny Primakov at the talks in Tehran. More pictures are in our photo gallery.
Photo: E. Primakov's personal archive.
- This is about Yevgeny Maksimovich Primakov's program.
- Perhaps, precisely because this program is about Yevgeny Maksimovich Primakov, this is one of the topics that ... You know, it's strange to discuss a code of conduct.
- And yet - your grandfather was very worried about you, did you feel it? Have you ever been ashamed?
- Well, of course, yes.
Primakov Jr. sighs.
- Did you go to him with downcast eyes?
- Of course, I used to be ashamed of some of my life decisions, in particular, this concerned my relationship with my chosen ones. But now, according to the results, as it is with me now, I am no longer ashamed. The only thing is that not long before his departure, about six months ago, my grandfather told me: well, you know, if you get divorced again, then we will kick you out and leave your wife.
- Do you have children?
- Yes, four. All girls: the oldest is 16 years old, the youngest is a year and nine months old.
- How did Evgeny Maksimovich treat them?
He loved them all very much...

Economist Mikhail Delyagin recalls how the country was brought out of default.
In 1993, I read a report prepared by Yevgeny Primakov while he was head of the Foreign Intelligence Service. It was a detailed analysis of how the West discriminates against Russia - under the guise of talk of friendship. Indeed, in the early 90s, many, including myself, were in euphoria: together we defeated communism, now we will live!
And only Primakov proved the opposite: in fact, now we will be robbed! His report showed a blatant, cruel extrusion of Russia from all markets.
Later, I told Evgeny Maksimovich that my transformation from an enthusiastic liberal into a normal sober-minded person began with this report. He was pleased.
The year 1998 showed that Primakov saw the root. Complete chaos after the default. Many did not realize the horror that was in reality. And the huge colossus of the economy just started to stop. The volume of freight traffic fell every day: yesterday less than today, today less than yesterday. There was a collapse ahead: there would be no electricity, no water... We ran around the world in search of 50 million dollars. This is a tiny amount for a huge country! I remember the feeling of that numbness, numbness. After all, the default happened when they simply stole the entire budget!
Primakov's candidacy for the post of prime minister was proposed by representatives of the Yeltsin Family - I think, simply out of horror. They, of course, did not look at the statistics of cargo transportation, but they understood that they would soon be demolished and eaten. The hatred for them was already colossal.
I was in the hall of the State Duma when the voting was going on. They proclaimed: Primakov is about to come out. He said: I do not promise you anything, I am not a magician, I will have to work very hard. All.
I remember how suddenly the atmosphere changed. There was just hopelessness, everyone huddled in their chair. And suddenly the deputies relieved themselves of the burden of responsibility: there was a man from the old days, he will do everything, he knows how. And we'll keep having fun.
Primakov was later accused of doing nothing - and he did a lot. To begin with, he canceled all the crazy decisions of the previous government regarding accelerated bankruptcy. Translated into Russian - accelerated robbery: if I like your plant, I can simply take it away. Introduced discounts on the transportation of significant goods by rail, primarily grain and coal. AND railways agreed like bunnies. He canceled the stupid pension reform. The reformers did not have enough money in the pension fund, and the government of Sergei Kiriyenko illegally decided to take an extra 2% of taxes from people from all incomes. Accountants found themselves in an unimaginable situation - either to break the law, or a government decree. Strict regulation of the movement of capital was introduced, and speculation was limited.
Primakov then saved Russia. He gathered into the government people who, in market economy they didn’t understand very well, but they understood that stealing was bad. And in six months they stabilized the country.

What only during the life did not write about Yevgeny Maksimovich Primakov. But one line in the thin "Case History": "A request to convince the patient to undergo a medical examination because he has not been to a preventive examination for years" 16 years ago played an unexpected - matrimonial - role in his fate. Irina Borisovna Primakova, the wife of the former director of the Foreign Intelligence Service, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the country's prime minister, and now the president of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, is giving an interview to the press for the first time and especially for Izvestia. Marina Zavada and Yuri Kulikov met with her.

Izvestia: Did you have a period when it seemed that nothing good could happen in life anymore?

Irina Primakova: Of course, like any living person. I was about forty - a crisis age, for a woman some kind of fatal date. The feeling that now everything will only go downhill did not leave. Family life was falling apart. And at the same time everything fell apart and collapsed in the country. It was the end of the 80s. I lived in one of the lanes on Chistye Prudy, and in front of my house many buildings were torn down. Imagine: a dank autumn, ruins on the site of once wonderful mansions, aunts trading on every corner ... And the bitter book read - Bunin's "Cursed Days" fell on such a mood ... What can I say, many of us were then in a state of anxious depression.

Izvestia: Yevgeny Maksimovich suffered the most severe losses: the death of his adult son, his wife Laura, with whom he lived for 36 years.

Primakov: 37, no crumbs...

Izvestia: But you too "passed the palisade of trials." Do you remember this line from Primakov's patient's poem dedicated to you?

Primakova: This is a metaphor. Or hyperbole (laughs). Because I had an ordinary life of an ordinary Soviet woman.

Izvestiya: But maybe, as a person who is not indifferent to you, Evgeny Maksimovich perceived something in a sharply subjective way?

Irina Primakova: I guess what he meant. I have never worked in any other medical system other than the Fourth Directorate. The patients were people in charge. Difficult in the service and, accordingly, in everyday life, in communication with the doctor. It is probably Primakov who called my efforts to find contact with such a complex contingent a "palisade of trials."

Izvestia: Were you annoyed by swagger, arrogance?

Primakova: I leave that out of the brackets. Doctors shouldn't talk badly about their patients. Even without last names. A sick person does not happen with a good character. At one time, a very experienced doctor, Valentina Mikhailovna Lapenkova, said to the embarrassed doctor residents who were first brought to the clinic of the Fourth Directorate: "Abstract from who is in front of you. The position of the patient remains outside the hospital. Otherwise, you will be nervous and make medical mistakes." It sunk deep into my soul.

Izvestia: You were probably "enlightened" through and through before you were hired?

Primakova: I cannot say that there were special checks. Filled out detailed questionnaires, passed interviews. I studied at the Stavropol Medical Institute ...

Izvestiya: Where are Gorbachev's daughter and son-in-law?

Primakova: They were three or four years younger than me. Of course, I saw Irina. The daughter of the first secretary of the regional committee of the party could not have known at the institute. Quiet, modest girl, did a great job. I have nothing more to say about her. Soon I left Stavropol. As a graduate with honors, I was offered to enter the Moscow residency. When the distribution commission was informed that the residency was under the Fourth Main Directorate, I was frightened. For some reason I thought it had something to do with the police. The name sounded too harsh.

No, they didn’t check me up to some seventh generation. My mother is from a family of repressed people. Her father was shot as an "enemy of the people". My mother's mother, Baba Vera, spent time in the camps, then painfully searched for children who were scattered to different shelters. She showed me a piece of paper about the rehabilitation of my grandfather. All that is left of man. A terrible feeling... But I mean, people like me were already taken to the Fourth Directorate at that time.

In Moscow, she married her colleague, a radiologist. Both were assigned to the sanatorium "Barvikha". You drove by when you were driving to our dacha. A daughter was born. Nine or ten years later, I was appointed head of the special department of the sanatorium, where general secretaries, members of the Politburo, and ministers were treated. I sigh heavily because I can’t stand administrative work. I'll tell you boldly: I coped with it quite well. But I like to be responsible for myself, I was burdened by the need to command ... In general, the days went on as usual. And suddenly a patient appears, on whose medical card it is displayed: "Primakov Evgeny Maksimovich."

Izvestia: It is known what a routine meeting in a clinical sanatorium has become for the attending physician ...

Primakova: You know, neither I nor, obviously, he had any kind of shock at the beginning. Another doctor, another patient ... The only thing that stood out from the series was his peculiar "medical history" with meager records of the same type: "Invited for medical examination. Didn't show up", "Please come for a physical examination. Didn't show up." Apparently, the doctors were reproached for the fact that the patient categorically did not visit the polyclinic: "During his stay in the Barvikha sanatorium, please convince the patient to undergo a medical examination because he has not been for a preventive examination for years."

Izvestia: Was Yevgeny Maksimovich's indifference to his health connected with recent losses?

Primakova: And this. And what what busy man, a healthy, normal man will run around, check himself? In my opinion, normal people that's how they behave. They go to the doctor when they get sick.

I don't know what prompted Primakov to come to Barvikha. Probably, someone told him: there is an opportunity to live in a sanatorium and be examined without stopping work. But I assume so, because he was not going to examine himself. In the morning Evgeny Maksimovich swam in the pool. I think this is the main thing that kept him in Barvikha. He loves to sail like a failed sailor. Then he immediately left for work. We allowed it, it was only necessary to notify the staff on duty. Returned late, God knows when. Dinner and went to bed. Actually, he behaved like in a hotel during a business trip. And since he was a widow, he probably solved some of his everyday problems along the way. Roughly speaking, a glass of tea, a hot meal...

Despite his busy schedule, I firmly decided to convince Primakov to undergo medical examination. He denied for a long time and reluctantly gave in under the onslaught of the main argument: banal examinations would take no more than half an hour a day.

Izvestia: Did the nurse drive by the hand?

Primakova: I led by the hand. Joint trips were accompanied by playful conversations, so imperceptibly the entire medical examination was carried out. Yevgeny Maksimovich stayed at Barvikha for a week at most. Well, how did you stay? Overnight stay. Leaving, he asked for my work phone: "If there are any questions, can I contact you?" - "Please". A few days later - a call: "Irina Borisovna, in my current position (he was elected a candidate member of the Politburo over the course of these few days. - Izvestia") I am entitled to a personal doctor. Would you like to become one?

I quickly replied, "Yes." - "Thank you. All the best," - and hung up. And I was left to sit almost dumbfounded: "Lord, why did I, without weighing anything, immediately agreed?" Maybe the whole point is that it was already more than seven in the evening and I was very tired? During the day, a lot of unpleasant situations have accumulated: a leaky pipe, a scandal between nurses, a call "on the carpet" to the head doctor ... And a whole stack of "case histories" in front of me. Or was it something else, as yet unconscious, that prompted me to agree so readily? In any case, I immediately regretted what I had done.

But it was too late. The next morning I was informed that a call had come in from the Office. In 24 hours I changed my status: I became the personal doctor of Primakov and his family.

Izvestia: Do you think Yevgeny Maksimovich offered you to become his attending physician, because something had already stirred in his soul?

Primakova: I asked him about this later. Yes, he says, he felt sympathy. Perhaps trust. But he is not like me, headlong, made a decision. I consulted with my doctor friends. A very close friend of Primakov, Academician Vladimir Ivanovich Burakovsky, was then alive. I spoke with him, with another academician - Armen Bunatyan, he is an anesthesiologist-resuscitator. With David Iosifovich Ioseliani, now chief cardiologist in Moscow, director of the Institute of Interventional Cardiology. Now these are my close friends, but then they seemed to be celestials. Two candidates were rejected: a sanitary doctor (from the medical reserve for such cases) and a resuscitator. Burakovsky joked: "It's too early to revive you. We need a good therapist." And then it dawned on Primakov: a good therapist was at Barvikha. Called. And I became his shadow. Like a guard. Only the guards work in shifts, and the doctor must be ready 24 hours a day at any time of the day or night (pause).

news: Well?

Primakova: Yes, actually, that's all (laughs).

News: And then?

Primakova: Are you interested in how the novel began (laughs)? Somehow it gradually began ... By that time, there was already a crack in my personal life. The marriage was slowly dying. We got married for love. But they turned out to be very different - in character, in temperament. He - good man and hopefully happier in his second marriage than with me. We did not arrange scandals, we spared the child. They lived like two strangers - each with his own life. He is on duty, I am at home; I'm on duty, he's at home.

And literally a month after I was transferred to Primakov as a personal doctor, a delegation of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR traveled to several states of America. The group included Sobchak, academician Yablokov, the famous violinist Liana Isakadze and other completely non-standard people. Evgeny Maksimovich in my medical care didn't need it, so I didn't feel like a doctor on a business trip. In fact, she turned out to be a bewitched spectator and for the first time looked at Primakov through the eyes of a woman. He performed brilliantly, especially when he was in the mood. He lit up, spoke recklessly, witty. I was delighted by something that delighted the Americans too: they probably discovered for the first time that a Soviet party leader can be free, liberated, superbly educated, and convincing.

Izvestiya: Remember, in "The Master and Margarita" the heroine begins to flirt with Azazello after he, turning away, accurately shoots through the seven of spades? "She had a passion for all people who do something first class," writes Bulgakov. Do you, too?

Primakova: A little differently. First of all, the mind conquers me. Whatever a man is, if he is not smart, that's all. In America, in our delegation, Primakov was, of course, the most striking personality.

Izvestia: And Sobchak?

Primakov: No. Not at all. A very peculiar person, a clear mind, but - narcissism ... We have an expression (and they used to say so in my parental family, and in the family of Evgeny Maksimovich): a person is not of my blood type. Here Sobchak is not a person of my blood type. And Primakov is mine. And even (laughs) my Rh factor.

Izvestiya: When Yevgeny Maksimovich wrote you these verses:

Doctor, it's good to have you around
It's not even about medicine.
Maybe an order of magnitude more important
That your eyes are blue-blue?

Primakova: It was - now I'll strain - 1991. The second year of our acquaintance. Egypt. Cairo. In the evening, at the hotel, Primakov gathered almost the entire team - assistants, security officers, a doctor ... Something like summing up the day. It usually ends with tea. And in one of these relaxed gatherings, Yevgeny Maksimovich says: "In my opinion, I wrote a wonderful poem. Let me read it?" And he reads these lines in front of everyone.

I was stunned, embarrassed - I don't know how to formulate my feelings more precisely. But, believe me, I didn’t take it at all as a declaration of love. Firstly, because it was read in front of everyone, and secondly, no matter what happens in our souls, no words on this subject have ever been said.

Izvestia: And no hints?

Primakov: No, no.

Izvestiya: Gallant invitations? For example, to the theatre?

Primakov: What are you?! Save and have mercy. I don't know if it crossed his mind, but I would refuse. No, no and NO.

Izvestia: But Evgeny Maksimovich did not accidentally read the poem in public, did he?

Primakov: I think so. Tête-à-tête would have been more tense for him. It would look like an explanation.

Izvestiya: But still I wanted to say something ...

Primakova: Apparently, he wanted to say something. But I did not ask ... After a while, as if in passing, I dropped: "Will you give me a poem to remember?" He replied: "I have it in a draft, everything is crossed out. I will rewrite it for you." - "No need to rewrite. Let it be as it is. It's even more pleasant." He says, "Good." And gave. Since then, of course, I have kept it.

Izvestiya: You must have experienced a special uplift all this time?

Primakova: I would not say that I flew. I was married. It may seem funny to someone, but since I'm married, everything else is impossible. Or you need to change your life radically, leave your husband and get closer to your loved one. Or continue to live with your husband, but do not bring the one you like closer. And this painful responsibility for the child! Anya was ten then. I set myself a lot of restrictions: it is impossible, unacceptable, sinful. Only the doctor is the patient, the patient is the doctor. All.

It was only after the coup, when the Institute of Personal Physicians was abolished, that a turning point occurred in our relations. He began to call: "Let's go to the theater." Why not? "Would you like to go to the concert?" With pleasure. "I have been invited to visit Burakovsky. He would like to see you too." Thank you. This "accompaniment" quietly grew into a closer relationship.

Izvestia: Judging by the significant time gap between writing a heartfelt poem and a solid decision to get married (three years - we calculated), it was difficult. Who had more doubts? Which of you, excuse me, was more cowardly?

Primakova: I think they are equal. Only the reasons for cowardice each had their own. Evgeny Maksimovich was very much stopped by the big, as he then imagined, age difference. I was frightened that his relatives and friends might come up with the idea: I do not need a person, but what is behind this person. Position, position ... Between the words of Evgeny Maksimovich: "Why are you leaving me? Stay" and my answer: "Yes, I'm staying" - years of doubt lay. But, as time has shown, both his and my fears were in vain.

Izvestia: Perhaps you will consider it indelicate (then don't answer), but with what words does the director of the Foreign Intelligence Service propose a hand and heart to a woman?

Primakova: When I had to return home, I usually sighed: "I don't want to leave." In one of those moments, he said: "And don't. Stay forever." This is, in fact, what the proposal that Yevgeny Maksimovich made to me two years before the wedding looked like.

I don't know how long all this would have dragged on, but we were pushed (rather by me than Primakov) by his close friend Grigory Iosifovich Morozov. A fantastic personality, scientist, professor, head of the IMEMO department, he was the first husband of Svetlana Stalina.

I thought that the first marriage should be ended first. And in what capacity Evgeny Maksimovich wants to prolong our relationship, this is his business. I told him that I was leaving my family. "Where?" She explained: I’ll stay with friends for now, and then we’ll exchange an apartment. He reacted instantly and unambiguously: "Come with your daughter to me."

Izvestiya: A beautiful novel.

Primakov: Yes? (Pause.) Never thought about it.

Izvestia: Joining a large, close-knit clan, especially in situations like yours, requires not only scrupulousness, but also a reserve of patience and common sense. After all, closely closed ranks should not under pressure, but respectfully open. How it was?

Primakova: Well, when the conversation turned to living together, Yevgeny Maksimovich said: "Nanka must be informed. She will be glad." I have a very warm relationship with the daughter of Evgeny Maksimovich. Nana knew everything, understood everything, and I saw that she was not against our romance.

But it’s one thing when dad has, let’s say, a woman, and quite another when this woman becomes his wife (she won’t take the mother’s place, it’s impossible, but nevertheless she will turn out to be a stepmother, if we call things in Russian by their proper names). I asked: "Can I talk to Nana myself?" He was surprised: "Why?" But I needed to see her reaction in person. If Nana is happy or even indifferent to the news, this is one option. And if I feel that she does not accept me as my father's wife, then everything is over. Just as if my Anya had not accepted Yevgeny Maksimovich, I would not have been able to get over it.

It seems that neither before nor after I experienced greater excitement than on the day when I went to "confess" to Nana. She said: "Nan, Yevgeny Maksimovich and I decided to live together." And I look at her. In general, Nanka's eyes are very sly, but here her face is frowning and stern. Everything broke for me. And suddenly she burst out laughing: "Fool! I'm playing a trick on you. It's time for you and dad to get married. I can't wait for this moment!" What do women do next in such situations? They begin to roar ... My Anya also treated Yevgeny Maksimovich as if she were her own. No one had to cut the soul.

Izvestiya: Irina Borisovna, we cannot but ask the most difficult question. Did you feel that Laura Vasilievna still occupies a place in the heart of Yevgeny Maksimovich?

Primakova: And it continues to borrow, believe me. Some people have a question, how do I feel about the fact that the family celebrates Laura Vasilievna's memorial day, Laura Vasilievna's birthday, her presence is felt in the house, a photograph hangs. Why not? Why not? The man lived with a woman for 37 years, they had two children, a common grief - Sasha, his son, was buried. Lived half a lifetime together. If a man crosses out everything that was before her for the sake of the next woman, he can cross out me too.

And actually, why is it necessary to cross out? Here are her continuations - daughter, grandchildren, how can this be crossed out? The fact that Yevgeny Maksimovich honors the memory of his first wife does not offend me at all. Moreover, he has reservations, he may accidentally turn to me: "Laur!" And I, honestly, I swear whatever you want, it's nice. This means that I am so organic for him that the boundaries are erased, where I am, where she is ... I visit my mother's grave as often as the graves of Laura and Sashenka. This all is mine. Evgeny Maksimovich equally accepted what is connected with me.

Izvestia: After your mother died two years ago, the three of you began to live together - with your father. Even go on vacation together. This small friendly group is like the top of a branched tree. In general, who is your family today?

Primakova: Before my dad moved in with us, my parents had been living in Moscow for several years. It was the initiative of Evgeny Maksimovich - to transport them from Stavropol. Mom was sick, and I was just torn. And my husband immediately suggested: we need to persuade my parents to move here. They bought a small apartment not far from us. At first, my mother seemed to feel better, but - cancer. God took pity on her - she did not suffer for long. On the day of the funeral, Yevgeny Maksimovich said: "Dad must live with us."

Who else is in our family? Oh, the clan is very big. Two daughters - Nana and Anya. Nan's husband, his parents. Unfortunately, in June we buried the son-in-law's father. Vladimir Ivanovich Bakhutashvili was an academician, immunologist, director of an institute in Tbilisi... Also oncology. During the last months of his life, he was ill and dying with us. Further. My brother with all his. Nana has two daughters: the eldest Sasha - she is 23, and the youngest - eight-year-old Maruska. She was a tender favorite of my mother. Then the eldest grandson - the son of the late Sasha: Zhenya Primakov Jr. He has a pseudonym Evgeny Sandro, now he is a staff correspondent for NTV in the Middle East. Zhenya also has a wife and also two daughters: from the first marriage, Nika, Nikush, and the second snot - Ksenia, she turned one year old on November 28.

Izvestia: How often and on what occasions do you gather as a whole clan?

Primakova: Once a month is a must, we rarely consider it. And so, it happens, and more often - especially in summer. Celebrations when a full collection is announced do not count. Usually we just call each other: we haven’t seen each other for a long time. We always gather at our dacha. It happens that someone jumps in parts. Here, for example, Nanina's family arrived. Or little Zhenya pulls himself up with all his friends. They call: "We're nearby. We'll stop by for lunch." - "We wait". Sometimes they all come at once, up to friends and girlfriends. They sit down at a long, long table...

Izvestiya: Aren't you tired of a too open house?

Primakov: No. I'm used to. My parents' house was also hospitable and welcoming. Here Evgeny Maksimovich and I strongly coincided. Only I have roots from Ciscaucasia, and he is from Transcaucasia. The people there are even more hospitable (laughs). It rarely happens that both I and he get tired of the abundance of people.

Izvestia: At least two world celebrities - Mikhail Gorbachev and Mstislav Rostropovich - almost flaunt that they are "henpecked". But Primakov, as a person with Tbilisi roots, probably amuses such confessions? What is the generally recognized political heavyweight in "private domains"?

Primakova: No one will even call him henpecked as a joke. In general, Evgeny Maksimovich is not at all what he seems on the TV screen. In life, he is a sociable and warm person. Returns from work late. We are waiting for him with dinner. Everyone sits together at the table: he, the security officer on duty, the driver ("attached" under Yevgeny Maksimovich for fifteen years. During this time, they became essentially family members), my dad and I. We have a long, thorough dinner.

Another evening ritual before Yevgeny Maksimovich went up to the office and worked for two hours was the TV. They watch news programs with dad, boxing, football, tennis ...

Izvestia: Are you sitting next to me?

Primakov: God forbid! Hate. My favorite channel is "Culture".

Izvestia: Do they get sick noisily?

Primakova: Well, they somehow react.

Izvestia: Are you angry: "Make it quieter"?

Primakova: Even if it's loud, I don't care. We don't have the same taste in movies. For me, a melodrama is better, but Yevgeny Maksimovich prefers action movies ... If a husband needs to prepare a book or an article, it's all at the expense of night time or on weekends. We have mountains, blockages of drafts. Recently, when they got rid of old folders, I say: "Well, at least leave something." Laughs: "Are you afraid that they will challenge what he wrote himself?"

It's good that we live in the country - we sleep with an open window all year round, and some share of oxygen falls to him. It's hard to get to go for a walk. Despite the fact that I am a doctor, I can not adapt anyone to healthy lifestyle life. It can be seen because it is not adapted itself. I always somehow feel sorry for the time, seemingly aimlessly spent walking back and forth. But here I am absolutely wrong. Walking is helpful.

Izvestiya: Is the food in your house a priority - tasty or, as it is fashionable now, healthy?

Primakova: Rather tasty. We are trying (especially young people, young ladies) to take care of ourselves. But these are timid attempts. TO separate meals I am generally skeptical. Mankind before us for so many centuries ate everything together and for some reason did not die out. Harmful excess.

Izvestia: Every person needs from time to time what the famous English writer called "my starry solitude". Star loneliness, total solitude. What do you do when you're all alone?

Primakova: This is such a blissful time. I'll explain why. Good book alone, when you can not be distracted, deepen, concentrate - a refined pleasure. I read according to my mood. More often - classics. For example, from French - Zola. This subtle connoisseur of human souls was well versed in medicine. Zola has a classic description of a gouty attack, when a person ate a foie gras, drank red wine, got incredible pleasure from it and woke up the next day with terribly swollen joints.

Izvestiya: How do you react to the fact that women like your husband? More than that - "trying to please them," which he jokingly admitted to us a year and a half ago in an interview?

Primakova: Why - jokingly? At the sight of a young beautiful woman, Yevgeny Maksimovich is transformed. And he does it unconsciously. I realized that it is pointless to be offended.

Izvestia: Is he jealous himself?

Primakova: Jealousy manifested itself most peculiarly at the beginning of our life together. I wanted to keep my old name. She complained: "Can you imagine how many documents I will have to fill out again?" He interrupted harshly: "Either you take my last name, or return the maiden one." Could not spare himself, had to run around the offices.

Izvestia: Yevgeny Maksimovich told us that "he does not consider it possible to act in a way that is not masculine." What content, according to your observations, does he put into this concept?

Primakova: Betraying in friendship is not a man's act. Leaving a family in trouble is not a man's thing. Dishonest and poor quality work - too. To do something to the detriment of the country (do not take it as arrogance) - from the same area. Everything to the max. Primakov does not put any petty, everyday meaning into this phrase. He will not give offense to himself, his relatives, or his friends. Protect - you can be sure. He is not aggressive, not vengeful person. Never attack first. But he will give back. Up to the point that he turns around and punches him with his fist. Honestly.

news: Yes! Seen?

Primakova: I didn’t see it myself, but they told me that somehow they hurt his family, they tried to offend Laura, and he, being already a mature person, gave, excuse me, in the face. Yes Yes. It was.

Izvestiya: Representatives of the world elite visit you. Here Madeleine Albright stopped by with her deputy Strobe Talbot...

Primakova: At that time, very difficult negotiations were going on regarding the expansion of NATO to the East. The moment came when they reached a dead end. Albright was supposed to fly out the next day. Evgeny Maksimovich called me: "Let's call them to our house in the evening." According to protocol, the Minister of Foreign Affairs usually invites distinguished guests to the residence. During lunch they are served by waiters. But the husband decided to arrange a purely home reception with Russian cuisine.

My friend and I quickly sat down to make dumplings. Everything turned out very spiritually. The guests ate dumplings, seasoning them with caviar instead of sour cream (try it somehow - it's terrible, but for some reason they liked it). Strobe Talbot softened, remembered that I was a doctor, and began consulting about his wife's health. In short, everyone loosened up. That evening, Evgeny Maksimovich and Madeleine Albright agreed.

Izvestia: Tell me, are there people for whom the doors of your house were closed for any reason?

Primakova: There are very few of them, but, unfortunately, they exist. These are those who behaved unworthily or even betrayed.

Izvestia: Did they try to somehow explain themselves to Yevgeny Maksimovich?

Primakova: We tried to apologize, to step over what had happened, to turn over a bad page. But we are both intolerant of meanness. For God's sake, let these people be alive, healthy, prosperous. But without us.

Izvestia: It is generally known what Yevgeny Maksimovich experienced when he encountered the intrigues of Yeltsin's inner circle during his short term premiership. One can only guess about the emotions of the Prime Minister's wife. How did you live, Irina Borisovna, during these difficult eight months?

Primakova: It's tense. I was against the new appointment of my husband, on which strings I could play. But I understood: if he accepts the offer, it is not in my power to prevent. It is impossible to manage Yevgeny Maksimovich. This is a person who makes decisions himself. Pulling his strings is useless. However, I was sure: having headed the government in that terrible situation, he would be loaded 24 hours a day. And it is doubly destructive to deal with such a president as we had ... When Primakov said that he should be imprisoned for economic crimes, and those with a stigma in the cannon, led by Berezovsky, perceived this as a personal threat, it became clear to me : will eat soon. There were even fears for the physical existence of her husband.

Recently, Yevgeny Maksimovich and I recalled that time, and I say: "Remember when we lived in the prime minister's residence ..." He thought: "Believe me, I don't remember anything there."

This is an amazing detail. A huge, awkward building, a strange and cold house, to which he came after midnight, not noticing the surroundings, the furniture, the garden, what he eats. The husband was so absorbed in work, and it was so psychologically difficult for him that the unloved house was perceived only as a place to spend the night ...

Shortly before the New Year, I told him: "Zhenya, you will be filmed." He objected: "You are thinking illogically. The change of cabinet is a serious shake-up. The country does not need it, especially since the economy has begun to rise." But I felt that logical reasoning had nothing to do with it. He interferes with them, does not fit in ... This was especially felt at very narrow pre-holiday gatherings.

Izvestia: At Boris Nikolayevich's dacha?

Primakov: What are you?! There were no rapprochements with the Yeltsin family and there could not be. We are talking about private dinners for members of the government, the presidential administration in the Kremlin or in the Reception House on the Lenin Hills. And by spring, my last illusions were dispelled. So when on May 12 Yevgeny Maksimovich called and said: "I was removed," I sincerely shouted: "Hurrah!"

Izvestiya: Offensive attacks on loved one are often perceived much more painfully than in their own address. It is unlikely that the television war of 1999 has been erased from memory. Dorenko was then called a "telekiller". You didn't want to tear him apart?

Primakov: Definitely. I never thought that I could feel such hatred for someone. My husband was returning home late, and I was sitting alone, seething in front of the screen with a feeling of complete helplessness. Yevgeny Maksimovich, in principle, treated this more restrainedly, without hysterics.

Izvestia: Doctors usually do not undertake to treat their family members. And what do you do if Yevgeny Maksimovich is ill? Does he obey you, or is there no prophet in his own house?

Primakova: Naturally, my husband recognizes me as a doctor, because that's how it happened historically (laughs). Luckily, he never catches a cold. You don't even have to knock on wood. The fact is that in the morning he takes an ice shower.

Izvestiya: Is he able to cook something out of food?

Primakova: Theoretically, probably. Practically - I have never seen (laughs).

Izvestia: How about making, repairing?

Primakova: As for the electrical part, it seems to be possible.

Izvestia: Understand?

Primakova: Well, he's thinking something. But there were at most one or two such precedents in our life.

Izvestia: Your husband always looks smart. Whose merit is this?

Primakova: I think it's a joint one. Although he buys things for himself, as a rule, himself.

Izvestiya: Abroad or in Moscow?

Primakova: In any convenient location. The only problem is choosing the time.

Izvestia: Does your family attach importance to the thoroughbredness of a dog, the popularity of a clothing brand, watches?

Primakova: The pedigree of a dog is absolutely irrelevant. We had wonderful mongrels, no problem. The last dog - a Labrador - the eldest grandson took because he wanted a large, smooth-haired and good-natured dog. Labradors are like that. And then ours turned out to be a little bit married. When the guys took the puppy, we told them: "You can't handle it." A baby was born, Zhenya has frequent business trips, and Sveta (daughter-in-law) will be physically hard with a dog and a baby. "No, we can." Well you can, you can. Although it was clear that they were being tortured. Then Zhenya calls: "It's so difficult with the dog, we don't know what to do." - "Well, bring it."

Here is the clock, yes. Many years ago, Evgeny Maksimovich was presented with an Omega, and since then he has not changed his watch. True, it is believed that the respectability of a man is determined by an expensive watch, but Yevgeny Maksimovich would have worn Glory with the same constancy if he had liked it.

Izvestiya: And the suit from Brioni, Cavalli, Ermenegildo Zegna?

Primakova: I'm afraid Evgeny Maksimovich doesn't even know these stamps. It's just that Primakov has a peculiarity - the ability to wear things. We bought two suits made by "Bolshevichka". Don't believe? Do you want me to show you? In our family, even young people do not show off. Little Zhenya - Evgeny Sandro - in general, the older he gets, the more character traits his grandfather acquires. Evgeny Maksimovich is pleased that his grandson has taken up the Middle East.

Izvestia: There is an Indian parable about ten blind men who, holding hands, forded a stormy river. Having got out on land, the blind decided to count. They did this many times, but each of them always came out with only nine. The old man sitting on the shore was terribly amused and finally could not stand it: "Start counting with yourself!" Man, paradoxically, tends to forget himself. He thinks about others, but does not remember himself. Do you think this setting is wrong? Should it be different?

Primakov: No. The only way. In any case, starting counting with myself is not my option.

He graduated from high school in Tbilisi.

I wanted to enter the Caspian Higher Naval School (Baku), but did not pass the medical examination.

1948-1953 - student of the Arabic department of the Moscow Institute of Oriental Studies. Languages ​​were difficult for Primakov; for a long time he could not get rid of his strong Georgian accent.

1953-1956 - Postgraduate student at the Faculty of Economics of Moscow State University and worked as a correspondent for the USSR State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company.
He left his scientific career due to financial difficulties after the birth of his son.

1956-1960 - executive editor, Chief Editor Main Directorate of Radio Broadcasting of the State Radio and Television of the USSR.
1960-1962 - Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the Main Editorial Board of the State Committee for Television and Radio Broadcasting.

1959-1991 - Member of the CPSU.

1962-1970 - columnist for the newspaper "Pravda", own correspondent of the newspaper "Pravda" in Egypt, deputy editor of the Asia and Africa department of the newspaper.
It is generally accepted that Primakov began to cooperate with intelligence in Egypt. But experts say that the Pravda correspondent network was not used by the KGB as an "operational cover" until the end of the 1980s. Oleg Kalugin, a former KGB general who teaches in the US, claims that Primakov still worked for the KGB as an intelligence officer (Moskovskiye Novosti, August 17-23, 1999). According to Kalugin, Primakov began cooperating with the Soviet special services in his last year at the institute. The agent under the name "Maxim" "performed some of the most sensitive tasks for the KGB, meeting with representatives of the Palestine Liberation Organization and Kurdish rebels, among whom he found understanding with the leader of the Kurds, Barzani. He predicted a power struggle in Iraq and the victory of Saddam Hussein over General Qasem, with whom Primakov had a close acquaintance, which turned out to be very valuable for him. Then he became friends with Saddam himself and a person close to him, Lieutenant Tariq Aziz ... He developed friendly relations with the Libyan dictator Gaddafi, Syrian President Assad and a dozen other politicians of various calibers." Kalugin praises Primakov the intelligence officer very much: "And he was right. He always predicted events quite accurately - a kind of intuition based on knowledge, analysis and political instinct." Kalugin tells how Primakov foresaw the deterioration of relations with Egypt, that the introduction of troops into Afghanistan could have an undesirable reaction in the Muslim world. "His initiatives and innovations never went beyond the reasonable. He always remained a realist, prudent and cautious."

1970-1977 - Deputy Director of the Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO) of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
From 1974 to 1979 - Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
Since 1979 - Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. He was a member of a group of Kremlin speechwriters.
1977-1985 - Director of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Academy of Sciences (IVAN) of the USSR.
1981-1985 - Chairman of the All-Union Association of Oriental Studies.
1985-1991 - Director of the Institute of World Economy and International Relations.
He demanded that the employees of the institutes be punctual, ordered them to come to work four days a week (they used to go two). Employees who helped Primakov in the development of analytical reports on the countries of the East for the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee very quickly received academic titles. Not everyone liked this style of leadership, and the Committee state security regularly received signals about the Zionist origin of the prominent Freemason Primakov.

1986-1989 - candidate member of the Central Committee of the CPSU.
1989-1990 - Member of the Central Committee of the CPSU.
From September 1989 to July 1990 - candidate member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU.
Member of the commission for international politics Central Committee of the CPSU.
Member of the Presidential Council (March–December 1990) and member of the USSR Security Council (1991).
In 1989, he traveled to Tbilisi to normalize the situation after the troops dispersed a peaceful demonstration and participated in negotiations to end the strikes with the leaders of the Popular Front of Azerbaijan.
In 1990, he headed the party and government commission, which insisted on bringing troops into Baku and armed suppression of Armenian pogroms. Then, for another three or four years, the leaders of the PFA told journalists that Primakov was preparing provocations against them...
In December 1990, as a personal envoy of the President of the USSR, he negotiated with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, trying to prevent a war in the Persian Gulf. Came under American bombing.

Career rise coincided with a personal tragedy - within a year, Primakov lost his son and wife.

1988-1989 - Academician-Secretary of the Department of World Economy and International Relations of the USSR Academy of Sciences, member of the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
Since December 1991 - Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
He was a member of the board of the Soviet-Iraqi Friendship Society, deputy chairman of the Soviet Peace Committee, chairman of the Soviet National Committee for Asia-Pacific Cooperation, a member of the UN University Council. Member of the Club of Rome (since 1975).

1989-1992 - Member of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the eleventh convocation.
From June 1989 to September 1991 - Chairman of the Council of the Union of the Armed Forces.
He unsuccessfully tried to mediate between the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Interregional Deputy Group.
He headed a commission to investigate cases of unjustified privileges for officials.

From September 1991 to November 1991 - First Deputy Chairman of the KGB of the USSR - Head of the 1st Main Directorate of the KGB of the USSR.
From November 1991 to December 1991 - Head of the Central Intelligence Service (former 1st Main Directorate of the KGB of the USSR).
From December 1991 to January 1996 - Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) of the Russian Federation.
In 1992, he achieved the adoption of the law "On Foreign Intelligence of the Russian Federation." The law removed intelligence from structures law enforcement, prohibited forced recruitment and enforced the use of diplomatic cover.
Under Primakov, intelligence stopped interfering in the internal affairs of other countries. Due to budget cuts, operations were stopped in most of Africa and Southeast Asia, newspaper offices used for journalistic cover were closed, and cooperation between the Foreign Intelligence Service and the intelligence services of other countries was established.
Despite the curtailment of the activities of the SVR, Primakov generously handed out military ranks and awards to his subordinates. Prior to Primakov's arrival, there was only one general in the SVR; by 1996, their number exceeded one hundred.
The main focus of the work of the SVR was to monitor economic and political processes that could harm Russia's interests. The SVR annually submitted reports to the President on these processes.
The first report, The New Post-Cold War Challenge: The Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction (1993), dealt with the brain drain and lethal technologies from developed countries to third world countries.
The second report, "Prospects for NATO Expansion and Russia's Interests" (1993), drew attention to the fact that, expanding to the countries of Central and of Eastern Europe, NATO does not guarantee its transformation from a military alliance into a political one. The report recommended the regrouping and rearmament of Russian troops in the west of the country and caused outrage in the US and Europe.
The third report is "Russia-CIS: Does the West's Position Need to Be Corrected?" (1994) - denounced the activities external forces trying to disrupt the process of integration between the CIS countries, and proposed to the Commonwealth to create a common defense space.
Fourth report - "Non-Proliferation Treaty" nuclear weapons. Problems of Extension" (1995) - three years before the first nuclear tests in India and Pakistan, he warned that these countries should sign the NPT.

Permanent member of the Security Council. In this capacity, he participated in the decision-making on the military operation against Chechnya in 1994.
Member of the Defense Council of the Russian Federation (since the creation of the council in 1996).

From January 1996 to September 1998 - Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation.
He has established himself as a champion of the integration of the CIS countries and an opponent of NATO's eastward expansion.
During the first year, Primakov traveled all over the world - Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Belarus, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, all of Yugoslavia, India, Syria, Israel, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh, Georgia, Mexico, Cuba, Venezuela, Indonesia, Finland, Italy, the Vatican, France, Germany, Portugal - but never went to the USA.
Among the features of Primakov-style diplomacy: a tougher attitude towards the Baltic countries due to their constant violation of the rights of the Russian-speaking population and ignoring the reproaches of the United States and Israel about Russian supplies of dual-use technologies and missile technologies to Iran.

From September 1998 to May 1999 - Prime Minister of the Russian Federation.
At the end of 1998 and the beginning of 1999, the talk did not cease that Primakov, if asked very kindly, would agree to run for the presidency of Russia. At the same time, the fact that Primakov was not going to the presidency was completely ignored.
“His premiership will be marked by the descendants of an unprecedented number of initiated corruption cases.<...>To begin with, Primakov decided to free Yeltsin from the traps of the "illegal economy" into which his family had fallen. Without the support or neutral position of the president, it is impossible to work in a system built personally for Yeltsin. The work was delicate, in several stages. But the old scout knew the business.<...> <Президент>and the system created by his own efforts grew together like Siamese twins. And the operation to separate them could have ended fatally with a probability of 90%. Yeltsin understood this and had no intention of thanking Primakov. The approaching cheap booth of impeachment doomed Primakov to the humiliating role of a bargaining chip" ("Novaya Gazeta", # 17, 1999).
Yeltsin signed the decree on the resignation of Primakov's cabinet a few days before the vote in the State Duma on the start of the impeachment procedure. The media noted that Primakov did nothing (he did not want to do anything) to prevent this vote from taking place at all.
In a televised address, Yeltsin acknowledged that Primakov's government "has fully fulfilled the tactical task assigned to it." The president explained his action by the government's lack of an economic strategy and by the fact that the situation in the economy is not improving.

Consultant to the administration of the Orenburg region on geopolitics (1999, governor of the region - Vladimir Elagin).

In the summer of 1999, politicians from various directions swarmed around Primakov, urging him to lead their pre-election bloc in the elections to State Duma third convocation. Were the media convinced that the politicians harassed Primakov in the hospital in Switzerland? and at the dacha in Yasenevo. Primakov claimed that no one came to see him, that he was busy writing a book.
On August 17, 1999, at a joint meeting of the political councils of the "Fatherland - All Russia" association and the Agrarian Party of Russia, he was elected chairman of the coordinating council of the "Fatherland - All Russia" bloc. It was decided that Primakov would head the bloc's electoral list.
Back in Switzerland, when asked if he was going to run for office President of Russia, Primakov replied: "I do not exclude anything for myself for the future."

In October 1999, he refused to meet with President Boris Yeltsin, explaining that he did not want to associate himself with the policy pursued by the president's entourage.

Father is a soldier. He served in Kyiv, then in Tbilisi. Shot as an "enemy of the people".
Mother Anna Yakovlevna is a pediatrician.
Russian patriotic newspapers write that " real name"Primakov - Kirshinblat. In fact, Kirshinblat is the husband of Primakov's mother's sister, a famous surgeon.
Among the "close relatives" attributed to Primakov is General Vitaly Markovich Primakov, who was repressed in 1934 in the Tukhachevskii case (1897-1937). Evgeny Primakov most likely not related.

Married with a second marriage.

The first wife is Laura Kharadze. We met in Tbilisi. They got married in 1951. She died a year after the death of her son.
The nephew of Primakov's wife is the famous mathematician Alexei Gvishiani. Her brother, Academician Jermen Gvishiani, was married to the daughter of Alexei Kosygin, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR.
Son - Alexander. Worked at the Institute of USA and Canada. In the mid-80s, he died of a heart attack on a bench in the Alexander Garden during the May Day demonstration - the ambulance was unable to break through the cordon to Red Square. The death of his beloved wife and son severely undermined Primakov's health.
Daughter - Nana - a defectologist by profession.
Grandson - Eugene, born in 1984 The youngest granddaughter - Masha, born in 1997

The second wife is Irina Borisovna. We met at the clinic: she was Primakov's attending physician.

Since 1974 - Corresponding Member, since 1979 - Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences, since 1991 - Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Having headed the SVR, he refused the rank of general due to his status.

He was awarded the Orders of the Red Banner of Labor, the Order of Friendship of Peoples "Badge of Honor", "For Services to the Fatherland" III degree, and medals.

Laureate of the State Prize of the USSR, the Nasser Prize, the Prize. Avicenna.

Friendship puts above any political differences.

Unlike most people who eventually lose touch with their childhood friends, Primakov kept all his friends. Over the years, their ranks have only grown. They joke that he still has friends even from ... kindergarten. It is impossible to list all of Primakov's friends.
Friends of childhood and youth: famous cardiac surgeon Academician Vladimir Burakovsky, former employee of the Central Committee of the CPSU Leon Onikov, film director Lev Kulidzhanov.
The government of Georgia has been unsuccessfully trying for several years to obtain the extradition of Igor Georgadze from Russia. The Russian Foreign Ministry replies that it has no idea where he is. According to some reports, the former chief of the Georgian Security Service is also a childhood friend of Primakov.
Primakov called his friends in various interviews: artist Mikhail Shemyakin, intelligence officer Donald Donaldovich McLane, philosopher Merab Mamardashvili, screenwriter Anatoly Grebnev, executive secretary of the Intelligence Veterans Committee Konstantin Gevandov.
Former Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Ignatenko, in an interview with the Izvestia newspaper (May 15, 1996), said: “He played a wonderful role in the lives of many people. He keeps the memory of his friends who have already passed away. friends, and friends love him."

Nikolai Inozemtsev, deputy editor-in-chief of the newspaper, invited Primakov to work for the Pravda newspaper. In 1970, the academician and director of the Institute of World Economy and International Relations Inozemtsev invited him to his deputy. “Inozemtsev thought well, but wrote poorly, so Primakov prepared materials for him,” another patron of Primakov recalled later - former secretary Central Committee of the CPSU Alexander Yakovlev. Yakovlev introduced Primakov to Mikhail Gorbachev. Primakov's academic career was also assisted by the president of the Academy of Sciences, Mstislav Keldysh.
Still, Primakov's career is the result of his personal abilities: the ability to win the favor of his subordinates and superiors.

Robert Markaryan has been Primakov's assistant since the time of the Institute of Oriental Studies. In the SVR, Markaryan received the rank of major general. After Primakov's appointment as prime minister, he became the head of the secretariat of the chairman of the government of the Russian Federation.
Yury Zubakov has been Primakov's assistant since 1990. After Primakov's appointment as prime minister, he became the head of the apparatus of the government of the Russian Federation.
Primakov's bodyguard is Gennady Alekseevich Khabarov.
Primakov's press secretary in the Foreign Intelligence Service was Tatyana Samolis.

At the Institute of Oriental Studies, Primakov was the supervisor of Saddam Hussein's cousin and Heydar Aliyev's daughter.
Primakov met Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in the mid-1960s when he acted as an intermediary in negotiations between the Iraqi Kurds and the Iraqi government. But Primakov's friendship with Hussein had no effect on the policy of the Iraqi leader. In 1991, Primakov failed to convince Hussein to withdraw troops from Kuwait. But this friendship irritates Western diplomats: the whole world went around the photo - a kiss between Yevgeny Primakov and Saddam Hussein.

The relationship between Russian Foreign Minister Primakov and US Secretary of State Warren Christopher was somewhat comical. The first time they met was in Helsinki, where Primakov deliberately violated protocol. It was planned that when Christopher got out of his car in a raincoat at the residence of the Russian minister, Primakov would approach him (also in a raincoat) and they would shake hands in front of the cameras. But Primakov did not go to Christopher's car, but remained standing in a suit on the porch, which put Christopher in the position of a guest ... Then Christopher paid a visit to Moscow, and Primakov never made a return visit to the United States ...
So when, in April 1996, Primakov became actively involved in the process of a peace settlement in the Middle East, pushing through the French settlement plan, Christopher, who was pushing through the American version, did not want to meet with him (citing the busy schedule of the visit). He also insisted that Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres demand that Primakov not interfere in the negotiations.
Diplomatic relations between the two countries reached an impasse, and the US had to change its Secretary of State. The phlegmatic and faceless Warren Christopher was replaced by a strong-willed, resolute and well-versed lady - Madeleine Albright - an active supporter of NATO's advance to the east and the forceful solution of interethnic conflicts. Despite such strong contradictions in their views, Primakov and Albright literally “sang together” (in July 1998, at a banquet on the occasion of the end of the conference of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, they sang a duet from West Side Story). Having made friends with Albright, Primakov "thawed out" and visited Washington.
Primakov is rightly called "Mikoyan of our days." This is the only case when a man who held such high positions under Mikhail Gorbachev retained them under Boris Yeltsin. Despite frequent changes of governments under Yeltsin, Primakov was always in demand, and his career only advanced.

After Primakov's appointment as prime minister, former KGB and SVR officials began to come to power: Yury Zubakov, head of the government apparatus, Oleg Chernov, deputy secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, Grigory Rapota, head of the Rosvooruzhenie state company, Nikolai Ermakov, chairman of the State Fisheries Committee, and deputy head of the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation on personnel issues Vladimir Makarov, etc.

The entrepreneurial politician Boris Berezovsky suffered the most from Primakov's fight against corruption in 1999. The media wondered which of the two would win. Berezovsky's chances were rapidly approaching zero. After Primakov's resignation from the post of prime minister, newspapers began to write that Berezovsky had also set it up.
On January 29, 1999, before flying to Davos, Berezovsky told reporters that his personal relationship with Primakov "has long roots, the origins of which lie back in the Academy of Sciences." "I am consistent in my policy, he is consistent in his, but our directions do not coincide.<...>I am convinced that Primakov really thinks about the country, I never said that he is opportunistic, but I said that the path that Primakov is following is erroneous" (from an interview with Berezovsky to the Ekho Moskvy radio station, April 28, 1999) .

The main talent is organizational: he equally skillfully manages any team - scientists, intelligence officers, diplomats, ministers.
Gallant in dealing with women.
He never speaks badly of anyone. Even about the people who deliberately offended him.
Has a unique memory for names and dates.
Hard worker. Calm, balanced, stubborn, secretive.

He loves Georgian cuisine and Georgian feasts with toastmasters and toasts. On days of family celebrations, he gathers a "narrow" circle of his closest friends - fifty people.
From alcohol he prefers vodka, but does not abuse it.
Writes poems. Shoots at the range. I used to go to the pool often.
Painfully perceives newspaper articles about himself.

Never been in excellent health. They say that after the death of his first wife and son, he lives on medicines and is saved by the closeness of two doctors - his wife and friend.
But no one saw the prime minister tired. He easily endures long meetings, long flights, change of time zones.
In April 1997, he underwent surgery for gallstone disease.
In the spring of 1999 - exacerbation of sciatica. He was treated at home, he refused to go to the hospital. From an interview with Primakov to the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper (May 5, 1999): “Is this attack of sciatica the first? – So acute – yes. But, apparently, the treatment does something. I am very touched that letters-telegrams with advice on how and with what to be treated came in a flood. But, of course, I can’t try all of them on myself. ”
In June 1999, Primakov underwent an operation in one of the Swiss clinics on the hip joint. “I wrote a letter, very warm, Madeleine Albright. And she writes to me in this letter that she thinks a lot about me after this back operation. And that she wants to meet and so on.<...>I answered in this way:<...>I was touched by her warm letter, I also want to meet her. But at the same time, she has to tell the CIA that she is being given the wrong information, absolutely. Because the operation was not on my back, but on my leg" (Primakov, NTV, Itogi program, September 5, 1999).

Evgeny Maksimovich is conservative in clothes - he prefers strict suits and blue "club" jackets. He likes chameleon glasses with tinted lenses, but lately he has been wearing ordinary ones.

As director of IMEMO, he lived on Leninsky Prospekt. This is how the vice-governor of the Lipetsk region Yuri Dyukarev described his housing in an interview with Profil magazine: “An old, pre-war building with windows overlooking a noisy, dusty street. scent."
After the death of his wife and son, he left this apartment and moved to Yasenevo - closer to the headquarters of the Foreign Intelligence Service. Here is how the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper describes his housing in the fall of 1998: “No sets, crystals and “custom” Italian lamps. A sofa covered with a rug, a modest carpet on the floor and a huge teddy bear, presented to Yevgeny Maksimovich by a dear little man. And there are many more books."
In October 1999, while submitting information about his income to the CEC, Primakov indicated a house and a plot of land (172.9 sq.m - 25 acres) and an apartment of 213 sq.m (judging by the area - the prime minister's). Primakov's income for 1998 amounted to 505,638 rubles (the prime minister's salary, scientific and creative activity, income from deposits in banks).

Author of books on the modern history of the East: "The countries of Arabia and colonialism", "Egypt: the time of President Nasser" (together with I. Belyaev), "War that might not have happened."
In 1999, he wrote a book about his work in intelligence and the Foreign Ministry (not yet published). "I wrote everything myself. No one helped me in the sense of literary processing or regrouping of the material. Only my wife helped, who proofread what came from the typist" (Primakov, interview with Versiya, September 7-13, 1999).

On January 30, 1999, Sergei Dorenko, in the Vremya (ORT) program, accused Primakov of supporting the Interstate Aviation Committee, which is headed by his wife Tatyana Anodina. Later it turned out that Anodina had nothing to do with Primakov.

The New Yorker magazine at the end of March 1999, citing British intelligence, published information that Primakov received a bribe of $800,000 from Iraqi Prime Minister Tariq Aziz for obstructing the access of the UN international inspectorate to military installations. Iraq. Even the Americans didn't believe it. Primakov also laughed for a long time, joking that such services cost more.

Novye Izvestia (October 9, 1999) published an article entitled "Primakov's List". It was about the fact that in February 1999, at the request of Primakov from the Prosecutor General's Office, he received a list of 163 names of prominent corrupt officials. “This is a typical provocation, and a multi-purpose one at that. Firstly, I didn’t send any requests anywhere, I tell you this quite unambiguously.<...>This time. Secondly, this list reminds me of something. When I looked at this list, I suddenly felt: somewhere I saw him, and almost he accurately conveys this one rating list published in Nezavisimaya Gazeta.<...>Only Berezovsky was put in the first place in order to give such, well, certainty or certainty, if you like.<...>These people who are supposedly sent in response to my request, they may be offended. Among them there are those who have nothing to be offended about, and there are those, the majority, who are normal people, and among them there are many of my comrades and friends. I'm going to sue for the first time in my life about this, right? And I will get it, I will ask for a large amount, the newspaper is not poor, apparently, and let all this money go to kindergarten"(Primakov, "Hero of the Day", October 11, 1999).

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