Andrey Illarionov

Andrey Illarionov
Illarionov in 2003
Born	(1961-09-16) 16 September 1961 (age 59) Sestroretsk, RSFSR
Nationality	Russian
Field	Macroeconomics
School or tradition	Libertarian economics

Andrey Nikolayevich Illarionov (Russian: Андре́й Никола́евич Илларио́нов, born 16 September 1961) is a Russian economist and former economic policy advisor to the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin from April 2000 to December 2005. Since April 2021 he is as a senior fellow at the Center for Security Policy in Washington, DC.

Life and career[]

Andrey Illarionov was born on 16 September 1961, in Sestroretsk, a municipal town of Saint Petersburg. At fifteen he started working at a communications office (telephone and postal services) in the town of Sestroretsk. He then went on to study economics at the Leningrad State University, graduating in 1983, and receiving a Ph.D. in economics in 1987.

From 1983 to 1984, and again from 1988 to 1990 Illarionov taught for the International Economic Relations Department of Leningrad State University. From 1990 to 1992 he was senior researcher at the Regional Economic Research Department of the Saint Petersburg State University of Economics and Finance. From 1992 he became economic adviser to the Russian Deputy Prime Minister and Acting Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar and (until 1993) the first deputy head of the Economic Reform Centre of the Russian Government. From 1993 to 1994 Illarionov was the head of the Analysis and Planning Group of the Chairman of the Council of Ministers and the Government of Russia, Viktor Chernomyrdin, after which he went on to become the vice-president of the , and director of the Moscow division. He has created the and was its director from 1994 to 2000. Illarionov had predicted 1998 financial crisis and called for a devaluation of the Russian ruble in order to avoid the August 1998 financial meltdown.^[1]

On 12 April 2000, Illarionov was invited by Vladimir Putin to be his senior economic adviser and in May 2000 he became the personal representative of the Russian president (sherpa) in the G8. He played an important role in introducing the low 13% flat income tax in Russia,^[1] in earlier repayment the Russian foreign debt, in creation the petroleum revenues-based Stabilization Fund of the Russian Federation and in bringing Russia's full-fledged membership into the political G8.

On 3 January 2005 Illarionov resigned from his position as presidential representative to the G8 because of the government troops' storm of the Beslan school on 3 September 2004 leading to death of 333 children, their parents and teachers.^[2] On 21 December 2005, Illarionov declared "This year Russia has become a different country. It is no longer a democratic country. It is no longer a free country". The Washington Post reported that he had cited a recent report by the human rights observer Freedom House.^[3] On 27 December 2005, Illarionov offered his resignation in protest against the stealing of billions of dollars by the Putin's circle from the Russian state via IPO of state-owned company Rosneft, also saying that Russia was no longer politically free and ran by an authoritarian and corrupt elite. "It is one thing to work in a country that is partly free. It is another thing when the political system has changed, and the country has stopped being free and democratic," he said.^[4] He also claimed that he had no more ability to influence the government's course and that Kremlin put limits on him expressing his point of view. Illarionov was openly critical to such elements of the Russian economic policy as the Yukos affair, increasing influence of government officials on private sector and civil rights, as well as the Kremlin pressure on Ukraine in the Russia-Ukraine gas dispute.^[1] Illarionov has also been a proponent of recognition of Chechnya's independence.^[5]

In October 2006, Illarionov was invited to be senior fellow at the Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity of the US libertarian think tank Cato Institute in Washington, DC.^[6] In this position, he has stated that "[Russia's] new corporate state in which state-owned enterprises are governed by personal interests and private corporations have become subject to arbitrary intervention to serve state interests"^[7] as well as "new ways in which political, economic and civil liberties are being eliminated."^[8]

On 14 April 2007, and 9 June 2007, Illarionov took part in opposition Dissenters' Marches in Moscow and Saint Petersburg, respectively.

Illarionov is one of the 34 first signatories of the online anti-Putin manifesto "Putin must go", published on 10 March 2010.

As a well known opponent to Vladimir Putin and his policies, he criticized former Czech president Václav Klaus' view that the EU and the US did more to escalate conflict in the Ukraine than did Vladimir Putin. ^[9]

Views[]

Climate change[]

In 2004 Illarionov likened Kyoto Protocol to a "concentration camp for the world economy", GULag, and called "the Kyoto Protocol an international Auschwitz for economic growth".^[10]

2008 Russo-Georgian war[]

Illarionov has questioned the official Russian version of the Russian-Georgian war that led to the Russian occupation of Georgia's provinces South Ossetia and Abkhazia. He has provided evidence that the war was launched by the Russian leadership that started aggression against Georgia on 6 August 2008 by bringing its military into South Ossetia and escalating the situation before the Georgian side was forced to respond in the night of 8 August.^[11]

2008 Russian financial crisis[]

Illarionov has also stated that Moscow's intervention into Georgia scared away investors and was in part responsible for the 2008 Russian financial crisis. He has criticized the Russian government attacks on private sector in summer of 2008 that contributed to financial crisis.^[12]

2010 Smolensk air disaster[]

In 2010 Illarionov voiced critical comments about the official Russian investigation about the Smolensk air disaster and called the official version "naive". He was invited into an investigative commission created by Polish parliament.^[13]

2014 Russian-Ukrainian conflict[]

On 4 February 2014, before the Russian intervention in Crimea, Illarionov predicted that Vladimir Putin was going to implement a military operation to effectively establish political control over Ukraine.^[14]

In late March 2014, following the Ukrainian revolution, Crimean crisis, the Crimean referendum, and the annexation of Crimea by Russia, speaking to Svenska Dagbladet, Illarionov suggested that Vladimir Putin would seek to incorporate Ukraine, Belarus, parts of Georgia and the Baltic states" into Russia. ^[15]

On 9 June, he said that the beginning of the ceasefire and negotiations between the newly elected Ukrainian president Poroshenko and separatists of break-away republics at the East of Ukraine would ultimately result in a Russian attempt of establishing political control over the entire Ukraine^[16]

Inevitable dissolution of the Russian Federation[]

In November 2018, Andrey Illarionov said in the chat of the Ukrainian portal GlavRed that the dissolution of Russian Federation is inevitable which is a natural process for multinational empires.^[17] Later in the same interview, when he was asked to name the thing that terrifies him the most in modern Russia, Illarionov listed political dictatorship, suppression of civil and political rights of citizens, and Kremlin's neo-imperial policies towards other countries, neighbors or not.

US elections 2020[]

In his 8 January 2021 LiveJournal blogpost, Andrey Illarionov expressed view that the Capitol police didn’t provide any resistance to demonstrators and quickly failed back into the building. The blog post is named "Reichstag fire" stating it as a trigger for the party in power to limit civil liberties.^[18]

See also[]

• Energy policy of Russia

References[]

External links[]

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Andrey Illarionov

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Andrey Illarionov.

• Stories from Putin's economist Free Thoughts Podcast
• Andrey Illarionov at LiveJournal
• Transcript from videotape speech of Andrei Illarionov at Capital University, 2003.
• Radio interview with Andrei Illarionov, transcript translated into English, Echo of Moscow, 30 December 2004.
• Andrey Illarionov, "Слово и Дело" (Words and Deeds), memoirs, Kontinent, N134,N136, 2007 (in Russian)
• Andrey Illarionov, The global financial crisis: why is it hardly global, not only financial, and not a crisis?