Andrei Kozyrev

In this name that followsEastern Slavic naming customs,thepatronymicisVladimirovichand thefamily nameisKozyrev.

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	(1951-03-27)27 March 1951 Brussels,Belgium
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 firstMinister of Foreign Affairsof the Russian Federation under PresidentBoris Yeltsin,in office for theRussian SFSRfrom October 1990 and, after thedissolution 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 manyin Russia have criticized him for being weak and not assertive enough in defending Russian interests in the face ofNATOin places such asRepublic of Bosnia and HerzegovinaandBa'athist Iraq.

He was the Russian representative during the signing of theOslo I Accord,for which he received criticism from Russian nationalist politicians and parties.His anti-imperialist and pro-western positions, however, were positively viewed. Kozyrev had graduated from theMoscow State Institute of International Relations(MGIMO) with a PhD in history before joining the SovietMinistry of Foreign Affairsin 1974, holding various positions in it before being appointed foreign minister.

Early life and education

Kozyrev was born in Brussels in 1951, the son of a Soviet engineer temporarily working there. He was educated at theMoscow 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 theKommunarmachine-building factory in Moscow.He is partly Jewish.

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.

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 byGorbachev's foreign minister,Eduard Shevardnadze,he became deputy chief of the renamed Administration of International Organizations in 1988. The next year Kozyrev became chief of the administration, replacing a man 20 years his senior.

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 thePresident of the Soviet UnionMikhail Gorbachevof 12 December 1990 No. UP-1177.

Career as Minister of Foreign Affairs

Seizing the opportunity opened by Gorbachev'sglasnostin summer 1989, Kozyrev wrote an article repudiating the Leninist concept of the "international class struggle", the very essence of Leninism.Firstly published in the Soviet press, the article was reproduced inThe Washington Postand other major news sources all over the world,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 failedSoviet coup attempt of 1991,he found himself in presidentBoris Yeltsin's team of young reformers, which includedYegor GaidarandAnatoly Chubais,and shared their Western liberal-democratic ideals. He became Russian foreign minister at the age of 39 and gained and kept the confidence of Boris Yeltsin as Russia became an independent state and, in many ways, the successor to the Soviet Union. Kozyrev tried to make Russia a partner with the West in the formation of the post-Cold War world.He emphasized cooperation over conflict with the United States while insisting that Russia be treated as a great power in international politics rather than as a fallen superpower. He favored major arms control agreements with the United States and the nonproliferation of nuclear arms.He was also viewed by many as one of the most important voices for liberalism and democracy in post-communist Russia.

Kozyrev was one of the drafters of theBelovezh Accords.He wrote in his 2019 memoir: "The signed document establishing theCommonwealth of Independent Stateswas in effect a death sentence for the Soviet Union, the largest country on earth and our fatherland. It was an emotional moment for us. Yet we knew it was inevitable, and we had done our best to avoid a much more disastrous outcome. "

In 1992 Kozyrev together with nine other Ministers of Foreign Affairs from the Baltic Sea area, and an EU commissioner, founded theCouncil of the Baltic Sea States(CBSS) and theEuroFaculty.

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 theConference on Security and Cooperation in Europe(CSCE) and the Russian delegation alike with a speech that echoed many of the positions of the nationalist opposition in Russia, and seemed to threaten a return to anti-Western policies. But an hour after giving the speech he retracted it, warning that the views he had earlier espoused reflected "the demands of the most extreme elements of the opposition in Russia".He had reason to worry, for one month earlierPravdahad reported that he was "splitting into pieces the former socialist camp… Kozyrev in effect is paving the way for the expansion of a new American empire." Others accused the "young reformers" in the Gaidar government of breaking "historical" ties with Warsaw Pact partners and Kozyrev of abandoning the "traditional" zone of Russian interests thanks to his obsession with a pro-Western foreign policy. The CSCE speech occurred a scant five days after the defenestration of Gaidar.

Kozyrev paintedYevgeny Primakov,his contemporary at the newly formedSVR,as a reactionary who entertained "the usual prejudices against NATO."

At theUN General AssemblyKozyrev declared in 1993, by the time of theSukhumi massacreof theWar in Abkhazia (1992–93):"Russia realizes that nointernational organizationor group of states can replace ourpeacekeepingefforts in this specificpost-Soviet space."

Kozyrev tried to promote the idea of dual nationality in the former Soviet empire but was unsuccessful.

There is still some question as to his role in the confusion of Yeltsin over theGerman re-unificationandHelsinki Final Actand ensuingPartnership for Peacepush forNATO expansiondouble-cross conceived by US Secretary of StateWarren Christopher.The window of opportunity to bring Russia into NATO closed by the end of Yeltsin's first term of office because the only way to avoid an explosion of fear in Russia was to bring Russia out of the cold first before the other Warsaw Pact countries; in the event, the opposite was done.

US Secretaries of State that were his opposite number during his tenure were:Jim Baker,Lawrence EagleburgerandWarren Christopher.

NNPT and conflict with Ukraine over Crimea

In October 1991 Vice PresidentAlexander Rutskoiwent to Kiev to negotiate the price of Russian natural gas exports toUkraine,and through Ukrainian territory to Europe. On that visit he also claimed Russian control and ownership of theBlack Sea fleet,based inSevastopol,and, indirectly, Russian sovereignty over the wholeCrimean Peninsula.Rutskoi publicly warned Kyiv against conflict with Moscow, which both had nuclear weapons and had the ability to claim sovereignty over Crimea.

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 theNunn–Lugar Cooperative Threat Reductionprogramme. TheBudapest Memorandum,which was co-written by Kozyrev, provided security assurances to the three minor ex-Soviet countries in exchange for their accession to theNuclear non-proliferation treatyand security guarantees from Russia, the United States, and the United Kingdom. By the end of 1996 all nuclear weapons were removed to Russian territory, and 18 years laterVladimir Putinreneged on the deal when he invaded Crimea and the Donbass.

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 liberalRussia's Choicebloc in theMurmanskregion. He took a seat as a representative from Murmansk when the State Duma met in January 1994, having won 60 percent of the vote in a field of 10.

He had been blamed for the international controversy over the conflict inChechnya.He had also been targeted as a scapegoat for failing to stopNorth Atlantic Treaty Organization(NATO) bombing of the Bosnian Serbs and of NATO plans to expand into Eastern Europe.

Andrei Kozyrev at Signing of theIsrael-Jordan Peace Treaty,1994

Kozyrev was criticized by the RussianState Dumafor capitulating to the West, which led to Russia's loss of "superpower" status, as well as for the alleged failure to support theBosnian Serbsduring theBosnian War.

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 byYevgeny 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 theLos 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."Since the conclusion of the second Duma term Kozyrev left the government for private business.

Kozyrev was a member of the Duma until the year 2000 elections.

Later life, memoirs and punditry

See also:Russia under Vladimir Putin

Kozyrev, who is convinced that the "authoritarian, anti-Western system Mr. Putin has re-imposed will not prevail", moved to the US in 2010,and has lived at least since 2015 inMiami,from where he published in 2019 a memoir of his time at the centre of Yeltsinian intrigue,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."

In his memoir Kozyrev "complains that the U.S. aggressively pushed Russia out of its own traditional markets, (i.e. theWarsaw Pactcountries) leaving Moscow to nurse its wounds and sell weapons and technology to rogue regimes. Overall, he feels that the West lacked "a figure ofWinston Churchill’s caliber "in the 1990s who would have helped Russia make the perilous transition to democracy."

In an audience at theJames A. Baker III Institute for Public Policyin 2020 Kozyrev saidObama's response to the2014 Crimean status referendumand subsequentAnnexation of Crimea by the Russian Federationwas "feeble".

Kozyrev feels that some of the problems in Chechnya stem from the particular brand ofWahhabi Islamsupplied throughinternational propagation of Salafism and WahhabismbySaudi Arabia.

Kozyrev wrote somewhat presciently in 2016 of his time in government that "In the worst case, there could be a replay of theYugoslavia catastrophe.The region was at a tipping point, and unfortunately, despite initial success, the democratizing forces inside the Russian government did not succeed. "

Kozyrev was a distinguished fellow at theWilson Center’s Kennan Institute in 2016.

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine

See also:2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine § In Russia

Kozyrev has been an outspoken critic of the2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine,and of Russian PresidentVladimir Putin's attitude towards the west, stating,

"All of these guys, mostly from theKGB,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. "

Kozyrev said he anticipated thatKremlinofficials may oust Putin following failures in the invasion.

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 theBudapest 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 ofSergey Lavrov.Kozyrev observes that Putin was fearful ofCOVID-19and 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.

In another interview Kozyrev, who tweeted on 1 March for Russian diplomats to resign, said Putin "acts out of desperation. That is clear."

In a 12 March 2022 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.

Kozyrev wrote in May 2022 an essay for theJournal of Democracyentitled "Why Putin Must Be Defeated" that he andAndrey Vladimirovich Kolesnikovremark the parallels between the post-1933Gleichschaltungthat Nazified German society and theseveral laws passed by the Russians and executive orders signed by Putin"basically [to] criminaliz[e] all forms of dissent" and to dismiss the remnants of independent Russian media. He observes sadly thatAnton Troianovskiwrote that "The history of mass execution and political imprisonment in the Soviet era, and the denunciation of fellow citizens encouraged by the state… now looms over Russia's deepening… repression," and finds the two 20th-century systems to have one thread in common: totalitarianism.

Academic criticisms

Australian academic RussologistGraeme Gillfinds Kozyrev's tenure at the Russian MFA "rather supine".

Sergey Radchenkofinds 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."

References

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).

External links

• AppearancesonC-SPAN