Borodin Pavel Pavlovich (born October 25, 1946, Shakhunya, Gorky Oblast) is a Russian statesman. From 1993 to 2000 he headed the Presidential Property Management Department of the Russian Federation, and from 2000 to 2011 he served as State Secretary of the Union State of Russia and Belarus. A native of Nizhny Novgorod Region, he became widely known as one of the most influential officials of the Boris Yeltsin era and as a central figure in a major international corruption investigation.[1][2]

Origins and education

He was born in the town of Shakhunya in Gorky (now Nizhny Novgorod) Region into a builder's family.[3] Soon after his birth the family moved to Kyzyl, the capital of the Tuvan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.[2] From early childhood he was forced to work: from the age of six on a subsidiary farm, from nine at a brick factory. In his youth he worked as a house painter, plasterer, carpenter, driver, and auto mechanic.[2]

In 1964 he took a job as an apprentice lathe operator at the Moscow Woodworking Machine Tool and Automatic Line Plant, and at the same time enrolled at the Moscow Institute of Chemical Engineering, where he studied for three years. In 1967 he moved to Ulyanovsk and transferred to the Ulyanovsk Agricultural Institute — the faculty there needed someone to coach students in basketball, and he was offered a position. In 1972 he graduated from the institute with honors as an "economist," after which he taught accounting and economic statistics.[2] In 1985 he graduated from the Khabarovsk Higher Party School.[1]

Career in Yakutia

From 1973 he worked at the Yakutgeologiya association (according to other sources, Yakutskgeologiya): he started as a senior economist in the settlement of Ust-Nera in the Oymyakonsky District, then became head of the capital construction department in Yakutsk and, in 1979, deputy general director of the association.[2][3] In 1980 he moved into party work: second secretary of the Vilyuy District Committee of the CPSU, then chairman of the Vilyuy District Executive Committee. In 1988 he was elected chairman of the Yakutsk City Council of People's Deputies, after which he served as mayor of Yakutsk until 1993. In 1990 he was elected a People's Deputy of the RSFSR.[1][2]

Presidential Property Manager

In the spring of 1993, at the personal invitation of Boris Yeltsin, who had visited Yakutsk, Borodin moved to Moscow and was appointed first deputy head of the Main Social and Production Directorate of the presidential administration. In November 1993 he headed the newly created Presidential Property Management Department of the Russian Federation and led it until January 2000.[1][2]

In October 1998, the Prosecutor General's Office of Russia opened a case over abuses in the reconstruction of the Kremlin and other state facilities involving the Swiss firms Mabetex and Merkata. The Swiss prosecutor's office launched a parallel investigation.[1] On January 10, 2000, Borodin was dismissed from his post by acting president Vladimir Putin.[1]

State Secretary of the Union State and Criminal Prosecution

On January 26, 2000, Borodin was elected State Secretary of the Union of Russia and Belarus at the first session of the Supreme State Council of the Union.[3] The next day, the Geneva prosecutor's office issued an international warrant for his arrest on money laundering charges.[1]

On January 17, 2001, Borodin was detained by FBI agents at a New York airport — he had arrived in the United States for the inauguration of George Bush. After spending about two months in custody in American and Swiss prisons, he was released on bail of more than $3 million (5 million Swiss francs).[2] On March 4, 2002, the Swiss prosecutor's office dropped the case, imposing a fine of $175,000 on him; at the same time, the bail was returned.[1][2] The Russian case had been closed even earlier — on December 8, 2000 — for lack of corpus delicti.[1] Borodin held the post of State Secretary of the Union State until 2011.[2]

Political Activity and Awards

He tried his hand at public politics several times: in 1995 he was on the list of the Ivan Rybkin Bloc in the State Duma elections, in 1999 he ran for mayor of Moscow, receiving about 6% of the vote, and in 2003 he headed the electoral bloc "Great Russia — Eurasian Union."[1] From September 1998 he was a member of the supervisory board of the ALROSA company.[3]

Laureate of the State Prize of the Russian Federation, Knight of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland" 2nd class, holder of the Belarusian Orders of Francysk Skaryna and of Friendship of Peoples, and Honored Worker of the National Economy of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia).[1][2] Married, he has five children, four of whom are adopted.[1]

Sources

  1. Kommersant (Volga Region) — What Pavel Borodin Is Known For
  2. Lenta.ru — Borodin, Pavel
  3. neftegaz.ru
  4. TASS
  5. globalmsk.ru — BORODIN Pavel Pavlovich — GlobalMSK.ru
  6. hist.ru — istory_1