Kremlin survivor resigns

His name is Stalyevich. He has a beard like Lenin, is constantly smoking and talks about drinking tea. Stalyevich, a very private person, is a highly influential Russian official. He tells journalists what he deems necessary but does not allow them to quote him.

One newspaper wrote, "said on condition of anonymity by a high-ranking official, who kept smoking," and everyone guessed that the paper was referring to the chief of staff Alexander Stalyevich Voloshin. Voloshin is a master of anonymous work with the press.

His only public speech in parliament was considered a failure by the media. He is the Kremlin record-holder for the number of rumors about his upcoming resignation. He has a reputation for being a tough politician and a skillful internal player.

Nine days after his appointment chief of the Kremlin administration on March 29, 1999, 45-year-old Voloshin introduced Putin to the Security Council as secretary.

"Extremist forces are trying to shatter the country. Ensuring normal operation of the constitutional bodies of power and holding 'clean and honest' parliamentary and presidential elections are the most important tasks in these conditions," Alexander Voloshin said. Nine months later Putin became the head of state.

As administration chief, Voloshin managed the main state-legal directorate, the secretariat of the presidential administration, the economic directorate, the press secretary, and the president's advisers and aides.

Voloshin's early life was proletarian - an assistant electric locomotive operator, leader of an electric locomotives repair team, department chief, and secretary of the Komsomol bureau of the Moskva-Sortirovochnaya Locomotive Shed of the Moscow railway. He attended two higher education institutes - the Moscow Institute of Transport Engineers and the All-Union Academy of Foreign Trade.

After the beginning of the Gaidar reforms, Voloshin worked on the stock market. He founded and headed the AK&M agency, which sent news about Russian companies to market participants. In the mid-1990s, Voloshin became a top official of the Federal Stock Corporation (FFK), which was the general agent for auctioning state enterprises.

In 1997, he became Valentin Yumashev's - the then administration chief - economic adviser, then deputy administration chief, and finally administration chief. Voloshin represented state interests in ORT TV and RAO EES and was a member of the Security Council.

Voloshin was always the last to leave the office at night. His disregard for wealth is legendary and officials quote his rather rough jokes with pleasure.

Last year Anatoly Chubais publicly congratulated Voloshin on his 46th birthday in the Kommersant newspaper. "I know what it means to be the president's administration chief, what emotions this rouses in all whose interests stand in contrast with the state's. That is why I can accurately assess that Alexander Stalyevich is efficiency fulfilling his duties," Chubais wrote.

Efficiency is a high compliment in the world of government officials in which Kremlin survivor Alexander Stalyevich Voloshin worked.