Mikhail Nikiforovich Poltoranin (; born 22 November 1939) is a

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

journalist and politician who held senior government posts under the first

President of Russia The president of Russia, officially the president of the Russian Federation (), is the executive head of state of Russia. The president is the chair of the State Council (Russia), Federal State Council and the President of Russia#Commander-in-ch ...

Boris Yeltsin Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin (1 February 1931 – 23 April 2007) was a Soviet and Russian politician and statesman who served as President of Russia from 1991 to 1999. He was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) from 1961 to ...

. Most notably, Poltoranin served as the minister of information and later as the

deputy prime minister A deputy prime minister or vice prime minister is, in some countries, a Minister (government), government minister who can take the position of acting prime minister when the prime minister is temporarily absent. The position is often likened to th ...

for the sphere of the press and news.

Biography

During the Soviet era he worked with the Communist Party daily ''

Moskovskaya Pravda ''Moskovskaya pravda'' (, "Moscow Truth", in the transliteration system used by the Library of Congress spelled "Moskovskaia pravda"), is a daily morning newspaper of Russia, and formerly of the Soviet Union. History Moskovskaja Pravda is the ...

''.Bohlen, Celestine (26 November 1992)
Minister of Information Is Dismissed by Yeltsin
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

''. Retrieved 6 September 2017. In early 1992, as part of the new government formed by

, Mikhail Poltoranin was among the several

Deputy Prime Minister A deputy prime minister or vice prime minister is, in some countries, a Minister (government), government minister who can take the position of acting prime minister when the prime minister is temporarily absent. The position is often likened to th ...

s. His role was to oversee the ministries regarding the press and cultural sphere. In April of that year,

Vice President of Russia The vice president of the Russian Federation () was a political office in Russia which existed from 1991 to 1993. The only occupant of this office was Alexander Rutskoy. The vice president was the first in the Russian presidential line of success ...

Alexander Rutskoy Alexander Vladimirovich Rutskoy (; born 16 September 1947) is a Russian politician and former Soviet military officer who served as the only vice president of Russia from 1991 to 1993. He was proclaimed acting president following Boris Yeltsin' ...

accused Yeltsin and his allies in various acts of corruption, including Poltoranin, who was accused of illegally selling off Russian property in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

. On August 3–8, 1992, Poltoranin visited

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

where he discussed the

Kuril Islands dispute The Kuril Islands dispute, known as the Northern Territories dispute in Japan, is a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia over the ownership of the four southernmost Kuril Islands. The Kuril Islands are a chain of islands that stretch ...

with Japanese officials, and proposed to get the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

involved in the question. The goal of this was to make sure that Russia's security interests in the region were addressed. Poltoranin ended up being sacked on 25 November 1992 from both his post as Minister of Information and Deputy Chairman of Government of the Russian Federation. This was largely viewed as a move to placate the conservative opposition by President Yeltsin, who wanted to win their support in the

Congress of People's Deputies of Russia The Congress of People's Deputies of the Russian SFSR () and since 1992 Congress of People's Deputies of the Russian Federation () was the supreme government institution in the Russian SFSR and in the Russian Federation from 16 May 1990 to 21 Se ...

for his economic plan. Poltoranin understood this and accepted the status of being a political sacrifice.

Works

After stepping down from the government, Poltoranin published a book titled ''The lonely tsar in the Kremlin: Yeltsin and his team'' during the late 1990s.

Racist views

Poltoranin expresses vehemently anti-

Vainakh Vainakh or Vaynakh may refer to: * Vainakh peoples The Nakh peoples are a group of North Caucasian languages, North Caucasian peoples identified by their use of the Nakh languages and other cultural similarities. These are chiefly the ethnic C ...

sentiments in his writings. In Chapter 5 of his book "Powerful as TNT. The Legacy of

Tsar Boris Boris III (; 28 August 1943), originally Boris Klemens Robert Maria Pius Ludwig Stanislaus Xaver (Boris Clement Robert Mary Pius Louis Stanislaus Xavier), was the Tsar of the Kingdom of Bulgaria from 1918 until his death in 1943. The eldest son ...

" (Russian: Власть в тротиловом эквиваленте. Наследие царя Бориса) he describes allowing exiled Chechens to return to Chechnya as "Chechenization of Russia", uses the phrase "acting Vainakh" as an insult, and compares Vainakh lands to sewage pits to support his reason for wanting to have a Chechen-Ingush Republic in East Kazakhstan instead of inside the North Caucasus of Russia.

Sources

References

Books

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Poltoranin, Mikhail 1939 births Deputy heads of government of the Russian Federation Government ministers of Russia Living people Russian male journalists First convocation members of the State Duma (Russian Federation)