Yevgeny Primakov
Director of the SVR 1991-96
Yevgeny Primakov in 1997 (Robert D. Ward, public domain).
Yevgeny Maksimovich Primakov (1929-2015) was a Russian diplomat and politician.1
He served as the first head of post-Soviet Russia’s foreign intelligence agency, the SVR from 1991 to 1996.2 Appointments as foreign minister and prime minister followed, until his popularity in the latter post led Boris Yeltsin to sack him in 1999.3
1
Jonathan Steele, Yevgeny Primakov obituary, guardian.com, 28 June 2015.
2
Gordon Bennett, The SVR: Russia’s Intelligence Service, The Conflict Studies Research Centre, Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, March 2000. Archived at Federation of American Scientists.
3
Jonathan Steele, Yevgeny Primakov obituary, guardian.com, 28 June 2015.