Andrei Kozyrev
Andrei Kozyrev | |
---|---|
Андрей Козырев | |
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia | |
In office 11 October 1990 – 6 January 1996 | |
President | Boris Yeltsin |
Preceded by | Vladimir Vinogradov |
Succeeded by | Yevgeny Primakov |
Personal details | |
Born | Brussels, Belgium | 27 March 1951
Spouse | Elena Kozyreva |
Alma mater | Moscow State Institute of International Relations |
Andrei Vladimirovich Kozyrev (Russian: Андре́й Влади́мирович Ко́зырев; born 27 March 1951) is a Russian politician who served as the former and the first Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation under President Boris Yeltsin, in office for the Russian SFSR from October 1990 and, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, from 1992 until January 1996 for Russia. In his position, he was credited with developing Russia's foreign policy immediately after the fall of the Soviet Union, although many[who?] in Russia have criticized him for being weak and not assertive enough in defending Russian interests in the face of NATO in places such as Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Ba'athist Iraq.
He was the Russian representative during the signing of the Oslo I Accord, for which he received criticism from Russian nationalist politicians and parties.[citation needed] His anti-imperialist and pro-western positions, however, were positively viewed. Kozyrev had graduated from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) with a PhD in history before joining the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1974, holding various positions in it before being appointed foreign minister.[1][2]
Early life and education
Kozyrev was born in Brussels in 1951, the son of a Soviet engineer temporarily working there. He was educated at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, a school for diplomats operated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Before beginning his studies there in 1969, he spent a year as a fitter in the Kommunar machine-building factory in Moscow.[3] He is partly Jewish.[4]
Career
Diplomat in Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Kozyrev completed his studies in 1974. He entered the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a speech writer and researcher in the Department of International Organizations, which was responsible for issues concerning the United Nations and arms control, including biological and chemical warfare issues. Over the next three years, he earned a post-graduate degree in historical science and published several books on the arms trade and the United Nations.[3]
Kozyrev's career in the Foreign Ministry marked him as a promising young Soviet diplomat. He became an attaché in the Department of International Organizations in 1979 and third secretary the next year. Promotions came regularly: he became second secretary in 1982; first secretary in 1984; counselor in 1986. Following the reorganization of the ministry by
Kozyrev was promoted to the diplomatic rank of the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary — the highest diplomatic rank in the Soviet Union — by the Decree of the President of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev of 12 December 1990 No. UP-1177.[5]
Career as Minister of Foreign Affairs
Seizing the opportunity opened by Gorbachev's glasnost in summer 1989, Kozyrev wrote an article repudiating the Leninist concept of the "international class struggle", the very essence of Leninism.[6] Firstly published in the Soviet press, the article was reproduced in The Washington Post and other major news sources all over the world,[7] making him known as a political figure.
In October 1990, a rebellious parliament of the Russian Federation voted to appoint Kozyrev the foreign minister. After the failed
Kozyrev was one of the drafters of the
In 1992 Kozyrev together with nine other Ministers of Foreign Affairs from the Baltic Sea area, and an EU commissioner, founded the Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS) and the EuroFaculty.[11]
On 15 December 1992, Kozyrev underlined his opposition to conservative, nationalistic forces in Russia with a dramatic and unprecedented diplomatic maneuver. He stunned the foreign ministers of the
Kozyrev painted Yevgeny Primakov, his contemporary at the newly formed SVR, as a reactionary who entertained "the usual prejudices against NATO."[16]
At the
Kozyrev tried to promote the idea of dual nationality in the former Soviet empire but was unsuccessful.[18]
There is still some question as to his role in the confusion of Yeltsin over the
US Secretaries of State that were his opposite number during his tenure were: Jim Baker, Lawrence Eagleburger and Warren Christopher.[21]
NNPT and conflict with Ukraine over Crimea
In October 1991 Vice President
In April 1992 and March 1993 two similar resolutions that claimed Crimea were passed by the Russian parliament. The Ukrainians turned for help to the United States, but it sought to aggregate Soviet nuclear weapons in the hands of Moscow and to occupy ex-Soviet scientists with the
State Duma
In the December 1993 elections, Kozyrev ran for a seat in the lower house, the State Duma, as a candidate on the list of the liberal
He had been blamed for the international controversy over the conflict in
Kozyrev was criticized by the Russian
After being elected a second time to the State Duma in Murmansk in January 1996, Kozyrev left the ministry as from now on it was prohibited to occupy both positions. He was succeeded as head of the MFA by Yevgeny Primakov. It was a political choice both by him and president. When asked if he had been "sacrificed by Yeltsin ... to pacify anti-reform forces?", Kozyrev told the Los Angeles Times, "of course, there has been some backtracking. Let's face it, there is stagnation. ... It was a genuine political conflict. I lost. I was overruled. I believe that my time will come again, that my policies will be brought back, sooner or later."[26] Since the conclusion of the second Duma term Kozyrev left the government for private business.[27]
Kozyrev was a member of the Duma until the year 2000 elections.[28]
Later life, memoirs and punditry
Kozyrev, who is convinced that the "authoritarian, anti-Western system Mr. Putin has re-imposed will not prevail", moved to the US in 2010,[29] and has lived at least since 2015 in Miami,[27] from where he published in 2019 a memoir of his time at the centre of Yeltsinian intrigue,[30][29] The Firebird: The Elusive Fate of Russian Democracy (Foreword by Michael McFaul. Pittsburgh: The University of Pittsburgh Press, 2019). Kozyrev warned a 2014 audience of diplomats that "Empty promises are even worse than empty threats."[20]
In his memoir Kozyrev "complains that the U.S. aggressively pushed Russia out of its own traditional markets, (i.e. the Warsaw Pact countries) leaving Moscow to nurse its wounds and sell weapons and technology to rogue regimes. Overall, he feels that the West lacked "a figure of Winston Churchill’s caliber" in the 1990s who would have helped Russia make the perilous transition to democracy."[2]
In an audience at the
Kozyrev feels that some of the problems in Chechnya stem from the particular brand of
Kozyrev wrote somewhat presciently in 2016 of his time in government that "In the worst case, there could be a replay of the Yugoslavia catastrophe. The region was at a tipping point, and unfortunately, despite initial success, the democratizing forces inside the Russian government did not succeed."[16]
Kozyrev was a distinguished fellow at the
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
Kozyrev has been an outspoken critic of the
"All of these guys, mostly from the KGB, never agreed that the Soviet Union lost the Cold War to the Russian people together with the democratic world outside. They don:t buy it. They want to stop it. And now they think this [invasion of Ukraine] is their last decisive battle."[32]
Kozyrev said he anticipated that Kremlin officials may oust Putin following failures in the invasion.[33]
In an early interview Kozyrev proposed the supply of armaments by NATO partners rather than a direct confrontation with Russia. He stressed that Putin will not stop his westward conquest with Ukraine if he is not stopped there, and lamented the fact that the Ukrainians had been improperly armed until after the invasion began. Putin cannot be provoked, laughs Kozyrev, as he is already in a heightened state of aggression and will perceive any weakness as an invitation to further aggression. Kozyrev, who wrote the Budapest Memorandum, calls the invasion "a flagrant violation" of its terms and finds the conduct of Putin in this regard shameful. Kozyrev is disappointed in the evolution of Sergey Lavrov. Kozyrev observes that Putin was fearful of COVID-19 and hence he surmises that Putin is so attached to this life that he will not risk nuclear war; he finds Putin to be the anti-Russian epitome.[21]
In another interview Kozyrev, who tweeted on 1 March for Russian diplomats to resign, said Putin "acts out of desperation. That is clear."[28]
In one interview broadcast when the Russian failure to capture the capital was become evident, he called Putin a "lunatic… detached from reality… delusional". Kozyrev opined that Putin thought the West weak and decadent. Kozyrev thought this war a disaster.[34]
Kozyrev wrote in May 2022 an essay for the
Academic criticisms
Australian academic Russologist Graeme Gill finds Kozyrev's tenure at the Russian MFA "rather supine".[35][why?]
Sergey Radchenko finds Kozyrev's 2019 memoir to offer "fascinating insights into Moscow's foreign policy at a time when everything seemed possible, including, perhaps, a prosperous, democratic Russia that was anchored in the West. Kozyrev chased that goal like that firebird of the Russian fairy tale, after which the book is titled, though unlike the hero of the Russian fairy tale, he never managed to catch it. Didn't even come close."[2]
References
- ^ Andrei Kozyrev, The Firebird: The Elusive Fate of Russian Democracy (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2019).
- ^ a b c d Radchenko, Sergey (2 December 2020). "H-Diplo Review Essay 292 on Kozyrev. The Firebird: The Elusive Fate of Russian Democracy". Michigan State University Department of History. H-Net: Humanities & Social Sciences Online.
- ^ a b c Gale Encyclopedia of Biography: http://www.answers.com/topic/andrei-vladimirovich-kozyrev-1
- ^ https://jweekly.com/1999/07/30/rabbi-s-son-foils-bombing-attempt-at-moscow-shul/
- ^ "О присвоении тов. Козыреву А.В. дипломатического ранга чрезвычайного и полномочного посла". Decree No. UP-1177 of 12 December 1990 (in Russian). President of the Soviet Union.
- ISBN 0887383602
- ^ The Washington Post: "From Moscow: Why Soviet Foreign Policy Went Awry", 9 January 1989, Page 10;
- ^ Peter Rutland and Gregory Dubinsky U.S. – RUSSIAN RELATIONS: HOPES AND FEARS; http://prutland.web.wesleyan.edu/Documents/US-Russian%20relations.pdf
- ^ Stephen Sestanovitch, The New Republic, "Andrei the giant", 11 April 1994; http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA14949136&v=2.1&u=miamidade&it=r&p=GPS&sw=w&asid=088a378c97ea7f815164ec56b43d9c32
- ^ Gale Encyclopedia of Russian History: "Andrei Vladimirovich Kozyrev"
- ISBN 978-3-8305-1769-6.
- ^ The Los Angeles Times, Just Kidding, Russian Says After Cold War Blast Stuns Europeans, 15 December 1992; http://articles.latimes.com/1992-12-15/news/mn-2214_1_foreign-ministers
- ^ Andrei Kozyrev speeches to the CSCE Council of Ministers (English translaion, abridged, unofficial); https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Andrei_Kozyrev_speeches_to_the_CSCE_Council_of_Ministers_(English_translaion,_abridged,_unofficial).pdf
- ^ Andrei Kozyrev speeches to the CSCE Council of Ministers (English translaion, full-text); https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Andrei_Kozyrev_speeches_to_the_CSCE_Council_of_Ministers_(English_translaion,_full-text).pdf
- ^ UK foreign ministry analysis of speeches by Russian foreign minister Andrei Kozyrev to the CSCE Council of Ministers; https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:UK_foreign_ministry_analysis_of_speeches_by_Russian_foreign_minister_Andrei_Kozyrev_to_the_CSCE_Council_of_Ministers.pdf
- ^ a b c d e Kozyrev, Andrei (Fall 2016). "Boris Yeltsin, the Soviet Union, the CIS, and Me". THE WILSON QUARTERLY / Wilson Center.
- ^ In Russia's Shadow, Time, 11 October 1993
- ^ ZEVELEV, IGOR A. (January 2008). "Russia's Policy Toward Compatriots in the Former Soviet Union". Russia in Global Affairs. Foreign Policy Research Foundation.
- ^ "NATO Expansion: What Yeltsin Heard". National Security Archive. George Washington University. 16 March 2018.
- ^ a b "Into the Fold or Out in the Cold? NATO Expansion and European Security after the Cold War". Video: NATO Expansion and European Security after the Cold War. The Wilson Center. 2 May 2014.
- ^ a b c Raynor (27 February 2022). "Former Russian diplomat says Russia will not stop with Ukraine". ABC10. YouTube.
- ^ The Los Angeles Times, "Interview: Andrei Kozyrev", http://articles.latimes.com/1996-03-10/opinion/op-45498_1_andrei-kozyrev
- ISBN 1597972363
- S2CID 155053350.
- S2CID 143874766.
- ^ The Los Angeles Times, "Interview: Andrei Kozyrev", 10 March 1996; http://articles.latimes.com/1996-03-10/opinion/op-45498_1_andrei-kozyrev/2
- ^ a b Giacomo, Carol (17 June 2015). "An Optimist's View of Russia". The New York Times.
- ^ a b Hayes, Chris (9 March 2022). "Putin Is Acting 'Out Of Desperation' Says Ex-Russian Foreign Minister". MSNBC.
- ^ a b c d "THE ELUSIVE FATE OF RUSSIAN DEMOCRACY". Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy. 14 January 2020.
- ^ "Former Russian foreign minister Kozyrev to speak at Rice's Baker Institute". RICE NEWS. 7 January 2020.
- ^ a b Kozyrev, Andrei (May 2022). "Why Putin Must Be Defeated". NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR DEMOCRACY.
- New Lines Magazine.
- ISSN 0140-0460.
- ^ Johnson, Joshua (12 March 2022). "Former Russian Foreign Minister Kozyrev Speaks On Putin, Ukraine Invasion". NBC News. YouTube.
- ISBN 978-1-349-56963-2.
Bibliography
- George Fujii. "H-Diplo Review Essay 292 on Kozyrev. The Firebird: The Elusive Fate of Russian Democracy" (2020) online
- Tsygankov, Andrei P. Russia's foreign policy: change and continuity in national identity (Rowman & Littlefield, 2019).