Russian politician
Igor Ivanovich Shuvalov (Russian: , ; born 4 January 1967) is a Russian politician and statesmen, Chairman of the State Development Corporation VEB.RF (ex-Vensheconombank) since May 24, 2018. He has the federal state civilian service rank of 1st class Active State Councillor of the Russian Federation.
From May 2012 to May 2018 he was First Deputy Prime Minister in Dmitry Medvedev's Cabinet. Previously, he served in the same capacity in Vladimir Putin's Second Cabinet. As First Deputy Prime Minister, he was the most senior member of the cabinet after the Prime Minister and was responsible for the federal budget and economic policies.
He supervised the development of the main directions of the country's socio-economic development, led anti-crisis headquarters during the crises of 2008 and 2014, dealt with issues of improving the quality of life, investment climate, support for small and medium-sized businesses, regulation of road traffic safety, migration policy, development of the Far East and the Arctic, supervised the implementation of priority national projects, the Eurasian integration project, and other strategic socio-economic issues.
He served as the President of the Russian Federation's Sherpa in the G8 (2005-2008), overseeing the preparation for the G8 summit in St. Petersburg (2006). He chaired the Organizing Committees for the APEC summit in Vladivostok 2012, the 27th World Summer Universiade in Kazan 2013, and the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
Since May 2018 he became the Chairman of State Development Corporation VEB.RF (Ex-Vensheconombank). Since then VEB.RF focused its activities on achieving national development goals and projects aimed at improving people's quality of life.
He is an Honored Economist of Russia, holds a Doctor of Juridical Sciences degree, and defended his dissertation on "Legal Regulation of Entrepreneurial Activity during Socio-Economic Crisis" at the Institute of Legislation and Comparative Law under the Government of the Russian Federation.
Biography.
Igor Shuvalov was born on 4 January 1967, in the town of Bilibino in Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, where his parents came to work. He graduated from high school in Moscow in 1984. Following a failed college matriculation in 1984 – 1985, he worked as a laboratory assistant at the Ekos Research Institute.
From 1985 to 1987 he completed compulsory military service in the Soviet Army, then enrolled into technical school. He later matriculated into the Faculty of Law at Moscow State University and graduated with a degree in Jurisprudence in 1993.
After graduation, Shuvalov was assigned as attaché to the legal department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where he was responsible for pursuing developments in international law. The same year he joined the law firm 'ALM Consulting', named after Alexander Mamut where ALM stands for his initials A. L. Mamut. Shuvalov was senior attorney, then managing partner until 1997. The firm is affiliated with the Moscow Bar Association. In 1995 – 1996, Shuvalov became a co-founder of Stalker, a wholesale open joint-stock company (OJSC), Fanteim, a real estate OJSC, RANDO Joint-stock company (JSC), a consumer goods manufacturer, and the bank consortium of Channel One Russia JSC, which consolidated the capital of banks that held shares in Public Television of Russia JSC (ORT).
In 1997, Shuvalov was appointed as Head of the Department of the State Register of Federal Property on the State Committee of the Russian Federation for State Property Management, where he was responsible for cooperation with financial institutions and represented the interests of the state on the boards of directors of Rosgosstrakh and Sovcomflot. In January 1998, Shuvalov was appointed Deputy Minister of State Property. In February 1998, he was appointed as a member of the board of directors of Public Television of Russia.
On 25 May 1998, Shuvalov was appointed Acting Chairman of the Russian Federal Property Fund (RFPF) and in September he was confirmed as Chairman. While working with the fund, Shuvalov represented the interests of the state in a number of companies – the Russian State Insurance Company, ORT, the All-Union Exhibition Centre SJSC (VVC), Gazprom, and several others.
On 18 May 2000, after the appointment of Mikhail Kasyanov as Prime Minister of Russia, Shuvalov became a minister of the Russian Federation as Chief of Staff of the Government. On 28 May 2003, following a conflict with Kasyanov, he left the Government and was appointed to the position of Assistant to the President, where he coordinated the activities of the working group responsible for the development of measures to double the GDP, the fight against poverty, and military reform.
In October 2003, Shuvalov was appointed Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration. In 2004, he was appointed as the President's Representative to the National Banking Council, and he became Chairman of the Board of Directors of Sovcomflot until July 2008. In 2005, Shuvalov became the personal representative of the president at the G8 and, in 2006, he was Deputy Chairman of the organizing committee for the preparation and securement of Russia's chairmanship of the G8.
On 12 May 2008, he was appointed First Deputy Prime Minister of Russia. In the same year, he headed the government commission on the development of small and medium-sized businesses, the commission to coordinate government actions to combat the effects of the global financial crisis, the commission on the socio-economic development of the Far East and Transbaikal, and the organizing committee on preparation for the APEC summit.
Since 19 March 2009, Shuvalov has been the national coordinator of the affairs of the Commonwealth of Independent States. In October 2009, he was discharged from the National Banking Council. In January 2010, he headed the Joint Governmental Commission on economic development and integration.
Since August 2010, Shuvalov has been responsible for coordinating the efforts of federal executive agencies to consider inquiries from Russian and foreign investors, and formally remains in that position, following the June 2012 appointment of Boris Titov as Commissioner for the Protection of Entrepreneurs' Rights. Following the September 2011 resignation of the Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Kudrin, Shuvalov took charge of the government's economic bloc. The same year he was appointed to replace Kudrin as Head of the Council on Financial Markets and Representative of Russia on the board for the Eurasian Economic Commission.
On 25 March 2011, the newspaper "Vedomost" reported that Shuvalov considered the possibility of heading the Right Cause political party, citing a federal official and a source within the party. In 2011, Shuvalov headed the regional electoral list of the United Russia party as a Primorsky Krai candidate for the State Duma of the VI Convocation at the 4 December elections.
In January 2012, Shuvalov became the head of the government commission on transport and communication. On 21 May 2012 Shuvalov was appointed as First Deputy Prime Minister in the government formed that month.
On 3 March, the United States imposed visa restrictions and froze assets of Shuvalov, his wife, sons, and daughter due to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Professional activities.
In 2009, an analyst with the electronic news site Slon.ru, Konstantin Gaaze, referred to Igor Shuvalov as "Putin's 'chief commander'" and an "engine in charge of 'it all'". The expert noted that for Putin Shuvalov was the "official with the driving force who could get things off the ground", which is why he gets assigned "projects that are economic in nature but with an extremely important public policy component as well as strict deadlines that cannot be breached". Among these projects, the author named the G8 summit the "ideological support for national projects", and described it as the "finishing touches" on the trilateral Customs Union of Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan, which was the first step toward building an economic supranational institution in the post-Soviet space.
According to Slon.ru, Dmitry Medvedev wanted to see Shuvalov as the head of his administration during his presidency. However, Shuvalov allegedly refused and joined the Putin government, thus becoming "a kind of a macroeconomic incarnation of the prime minister".
Government projects.
Vladivostok APEC Summit 2012.
In 2008, Igor Shuvalov became head of the organizing committee on preparation for the summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, which was held in Vladivostok in September 2012. Preparation for the forum involved revamping of the city's infrastructure. The main construction sites were the cable-stayed bridge across the Eastern Bosphorus Strait to Russky Island, the cable-stayed bridge across the Zolotoy Rog Bay, and the new campus of the Far Eastern Federal University. The construction project for facilities for the summit was subjected to public criticism because of the high costs. Igor Shuvalov stated that none of the facilities built in Primorye were akin to a "Potemkin village". According to the First Deputy Prime Minister, facilities "for the show" and "Potemkin villages" were instances of an external facade with nothing behind, while, with the facilities built in Primorye, one could "come and see for yourself – you can either work or study here".
After completion of the summit, the director of the Center for Support for Regional Initiatives for the HSE NRU (Higher School of Economics National Research University) Ivan Ognev referred to Ivan Shuvalov as the "organizer of Putin's victories in Vladivostok, including the APEC summit of 2012, which drastically changed the city and the local mentality".
In January 2013, the Accounts Chamber announced that the total investment in the construction of facilities for the APEC summit was 690 billion roubles, of which 239 billion was funded by the state, the remaining funds coming from extra-budgetary sources; 99% of the funds were disbursed as budgeted. Shuvalov supported investigations into potential corruption in preparation for the APEC 2012 summit.
In November 2012, Roman Panov, the former Deputy Minister of Regional Development for the Russian Federation, was charged with large-scale fraud. At that time he held the post of Prime Minister of Primorsky Krai. On 20 November 2012, the head of the Far Eastern Directorate of the Ministry of Regional Development, Oleg Bukalov, resigned his post. Shuvalov stated that the Far Eastern Directorate of the Ministry of Regional Development was a "redundant link". He expressed the hope that the perpetrators of the embezzlement would be convicted. If someone steals during a project, "they should be thrown in jail," according to Shuvalov. Shuvalov believes that the APEC 2012 forum should help shift Russia's foreign trade balance toward Asian countries.
Socio-economic development of the Far East.
In 2008, the Russian government established a state commission on the socio-economic development of the Far East, the Republic of Buryatia, Zabaykalsky Krai, and Irkutsk Oblast. The commission was headed by the First Deputy Prime Minister, Igor Shuvalov.
In 2013, the government raised the question of whether or not the existence of the Ministry of the Russian Federation for the Development of the Far East, formed in 2012, served a useful purpose. The proposed plan for socio-economic development of the Eastern Territories prepared by the agency had not been approved by any of the key ministries, while the amount of requested appropriations was more than 5.7 trillion roubles, which was beyond the resources of the Treasury. The government returned to the idea of consolidating the faculties for the development of the Far East region within a specialized state corporation. Igor Shuvalov, who oversaw the construction of facilities for the APEC summit in Vladivostok, was among the potential candidates considered for the position of Agency Chief.
On 31 August 2013, Vladimir Putin signed a decree dismissing Viktor Ishaev from his posts as Plenipotentiary Envoy of the President of the Russian Federation to the Far Eastern Federal District, and Minister for Development of the Far East. By another decree, the head of state appointed Yuri Trutnev as both Deputy Prime Minister and Plenipotentiary Envoy of the President to the Far Eastern Federal District. The media referred to Trutnev's appointment as a "strategic success" for Igor Shuvalov.
In April 2013, the Prime Minister of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev, signed a program covering up until 2025, for the socio-economic development of the Far East and the Zabaykalsky Krai. In the next 12 years approximately 10 trillion roubles will be invested in the program implementation from both the state budget and the funds of private investors.
Financial Mega-Regulator.
In 2012, Igor Shuvalov proposed the idea of creating a regulator of the Russian financial markets based in the Central Bank of Russia (CBR). According to Shuvalov's plan, the strengthened Federal Financial Markets Service that is charged with the supervision, including that of insurance companies, would be merged into CBR. The concept of creating a mega-regulator proposed by Shuvalov was approved by the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, in January 2013.
Universiade 2013.
In 2009, Igor Shuvalov