Mikhail Nikiforovich Poltoranin (russian: Михаил Никифорович Полторанин; born 22 November 1939) is a

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

journalist and politician who held senior government posts under the first

President of Russia The president of the Russian Federation ( rus, Президент Российской Федерации, Prezident Rossiyskoy Federatsii) is the head of state of the Russian Federation. The president leads the executive branch of the federal ...

Boris Yeltsin Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin ( rus, Борис Николаевич Ельцин, p=bɐˈrʲis nʲɪkɐˈla(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈjelʲtsɨn, a=Ru-Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin.ogg; 1 February 1931 – 23 April 2007) was a Soviet and Russian politician wh ...

. 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 government minister who can take the position of acting prime minister when the prime minister is temporarily absent. The position is often likened to that of a vice president, ...

for the sphere of the press and news.

Biography

During the Soviet era he worked with the

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...

daily ''

Moskovskaya Pravda ''Moskovskaya pravda'' (russian: Московская правда, "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 Uni ...

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

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''. 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 government minister who can take the position of acting prime minister when the prime minister is temporarily absent. The position is often likened to that of a vice president, ...

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 (before 25 December 1991 – vice president of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic) was the first in the presidential line of succession, becoming the new president of Russia upon the death ...

Alexander Rutskoy Alexander Vladimirovich Rutskoy (russian: Александр Владимирович Руцкой; born 16 September 1947) is a Russian politician and a former Soviet military officer, Major General of Aviation (1991). He served as the only vic ...

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 and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

. On August 3–8, 1992, Poltoranin visited

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

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 b ...

with Japanese officials, and proposed to get the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

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 (russian: Съезд народных депутатов РСФСР) and since 1991 Congress of People's Deputies of the Russian Federation (russian: Съезд народных депута� ...

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 The Nakh peoples, also known as ''Vainakh peoples'' (Chechen/Ingush: , apparently derived from Chechen , Ingush "our people"; also Chechen-Ingush), are a group of Caucasian peoples identified by their use of the Nakh languages and other cult ...

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

Tsar Boris Boris I, also known as Boris-Mihail (Michael) and ''Bogoris'' ( cu, Борисъ А҃ / Борисъ-Михаилъ bg, Борис I / Борис-Михаил; died 2 May 907), was the ruler of the First Bulgarian Empire in 852–889. At ...

" (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 20th-century Russian politicians Deputy heads of government of the Russian Federation Government ministers of Russia Living people Russian journalists First convocation members of the State Duma (Russian Federation)