Vladislav Surkov is returning to leadership of the cabinet's religious affairs commission, which he headed from February through June, 2012. Prime Minister Medvedev signed the corresponding order for Surkov's new appointment and redistribution of duties in the government.

The first Deputy Chairman of the Muslim Spiritual Directorate of the European Part of Russia Damir Gizatullin expresses the hope that only Surkov was able to stabilize the situation in Tatarstan after the assassination of Deputy Mufti Waliullah Yakupov and attempted murder of Supreme Mufti Ildus Fayzov. The representative of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia Boruch Gorin agrees with him. He states that “not only in the government but also in the whole state there is no other official, whose understanding of our problems would be at Surkov’s level”.

But the greatest optimism about the new appointment was shown by the representative of the Russian Orthodox Church, archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin. “We have been discussing many important issues of cooperation for many years… And this dialog was not only bureaucratic but also intellectual”, the priest said. Previously the Commission on issues relating to religious associations focused mainly on purely practical issues such as draft laws and by-laws, property and financial organizations, and organization of pilgrimage. With the return of Surkov, the range of these issues will expand, Chaplin believes.

And he is certainly right about it. The transfer of the range of religious issues to Surkov is seen as an attempt to introduce an “anti-recessionary management”.

In 2012, several information scandals around the Russian Orthodox Church broke out at once. The media widely reported the judgment proceedings around the apartment of Patriarch Kirill in the prestigious “the House on the embankment” and also the story with retouched image of the expensive watch on his wrist. Recently it became known about the accident, which occurred on July 31. A two-seat sport BMW with diplomatic numbers that was under the control of Rector of the Church of Prophet Elijah Abbot Timothy (in the world - Alexey Podobedov) crashed into a Volkswagen Touareg. After the blow, the BMW flew out into oncoming traffic, where it crashed with a Toyota Corolla. According to eyewitnesses, at the time of the accident, the priest was drunk and refused to take health screening. The fact that Abbot Timothy was the Godfather of Fillip Kirkorov’s daughter just added some piquancy to the incident.

And certainly, the trial of three Pussy Riot band members, who held a “punk-prayer” in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, became the greatest scandal. It is obvious that the government itself has inflated this scandal to the world scale and demonstrated its inadequacy: the girls are being kept imprisoned for several months, they are being judged on almost medieval concepts. Actions in support of the girls are being held not only in Russia but throughout the whole world. Public politicians, artists and pop stars are advocating for their justification. Three petitions signed by more than 100 thousand people have been published on the Internet. There is only one way out of the crisis in the problem: the absolute cooperation of the Government and the Church is necessary. This task is assigned now to Surkov.

In 2008, he declared, “There has occurred fetishization of all temporary and transient - Progress, News, Gears, Consumption, Movement, Fashion, Hurry, and Commerce. And this is, frankly, quite good, because since then something has got to such temporary and transient creature as Man as well. Although it is still unclear who man to man is, public medicine, mass production, new technologies, the Internet, democracy, and many other things make life more interesting, more comfortable, and better. I'm serious – better and better. And it is worth fussing around and striving. It is silly to abandon socially useful activities and suddenly stop (for example, to a surgeon who has just made the cut) in thoughts on the eternal”.

Perhaps, right now unique opportunity to combine these two incompatible occupations is coming to Surkov and he is getting fussing and striving in thoughts on the eternal. Not only the greatly faltered prestige of the Russian Orthodox Church but also his own reputation as an effective manager in extreme circumstances depend on how well he will be able to carry out this task.

Rumafia REFERENCE

When a student, Surkov earned his living from making jeans that were hard-to-get at that time  and from hack  writing for  enterprising publishers of Vladimir Gusinsky's team. He wrote romance novels full of teasing erotic scenes  like "She put her arms around his knees and his hard penis --" They were very popular as during the Soviet period people could only read flat books censored by the Communist party.

Source: Stringer, 25 June 2003

 
 Since the very start of his advertising career Vladislav Surkov preferred to take a shortcut in settling issues. Thus, in 1990 he paid a  tidy sum to editors of Stolitsa magazine  for  promotion of Menatep Group. That kind of activity was not legally regulated at that time so both publishers and advertisers acted  at  their own risk.

Source: Kommersant,  2  July 2008


 By the first half of 1990  lobbying practice had not been integrated in the State Duma yet.  Since the Soviet time there had been a simple game plan  left:   a faction leader was summoned to the Kremlin, told what to vote for and promised a recompense and a kickback. Everything else went without system. Surkov and his associate deputy Vadim Boiko were rumoured to develop lobbying tactics and   price list for services offered by Parliament members. The duo put it on a scientific basis and organized  complicated and multilevel lobbying system.

Source: Stringer, 25 June 2003 


 In 1997  Surkov felt unappreciated and  asked management of Menatep Group and Mikhail Khodorkovsky personally  to make him  a partner, let him took part in managing the group and  raise his award fee for each official bribed. Khodorkovsky flatly refused to do that. Being too ambitious, Surkov quit  Menatep Group. Since then his  rancor has been much spoken about.
Source: forum-msk.org, 21 December 2005

 
  While working for the TV company owned by Boris Berezovsky, Surkov said,  "It's a myth that Boris Berezovsky does what he likes. The more so because Berezovsky is not a man of the conflict. On the contrary, he tries his best to avoid all these wars in future.''

 Later, when invited to the Kremlin  with Berezovsky's assistance, he had a hand in driving him out of media space. In 2002 Surkov said, ''Berezovsky seeks for a conflict. Obviously, he finally realized that he would get nothing from the people close to the president and went to the provinces to foment a rebellion."

Source: Moskovskiye Novosti, 19 February 2004 


In  autumn 1999   experts  called Surkov  "a brilliant communicator " and  "a creative PR expert and consultant  able to anticipate certain events."    Surkov's first brainchild was reported to be Unity election bloc founded in 1999 as a counterweight to Yevgeny Primakov's  and Yuri Luzhkov's Fatherland is  the whole Russia bloc that was gaining popularity at the moment.  Actually, Surkov borrowed an  idea of ​​establishing a powerful alliance of the regional officials  loyal to the Kremlin  from  Boris Berezovsky and former deputy head of Presidential Administration Sergei Zverev.

 After Unity  had allied with  Fatherland  Surkov, while speaking at a meeting ofFatherland's members in July 2001,  said that at last it was possible to correct " a historic mistake"  and to overcome the "cleavage" between  Unity  and   Fatherland   which had  formerly been political opponents. In 2003 the bloc  was renamed as United Russiapolitical party. Surkov   at the same time was called  a co-founder and  the main  ideologist  of United Russia  as a "party of the power".  Surkov was also said to lead the party to victory in parliamentary elections in December 2003.
Source: RIA Novosti, 11 July 2001, Political news Agency22 April 2005


  Surkov was  directly involved in establishing  several youth movements in Russia. For instance, he was associated  with  Going Together pro-presidential youth movement  founded in 2000. The movement was headed by former employee of the Presidential Administration Vasily Yakimenko. The first major event arranged by Going Together  was a meeting held in the centre of Moscow  on  7  November 2000. The movement brought together about 6000 people who called upon for "no drinking", "no smoking", "no using dirty  language" and for ''supporting  Vladimir Putin''. Going Together  was reported to be  "a failure"  as the movement  became  notorious for its narrow-mindedness and eventually began to discredit Putin in the opinion of both domestic and world public.Going Together was reported to be founded only for money making.

Source: Kommersant, 21 February 2005


   In 2005  The Ours movement was established to replace Going Together. On 21 February  2005  in St. Petersburg  Surkov and Yakimenko met with  "commissars" of the new youth movement.  They tried to avoid the attention of mass media.

 Surkov and Yakimenko promised to their supporters that by 2008  a new "party of the power" would be founded on the basis of  The Ours. They  emphasized that their plan had been approved by Vladimir Putin.

 In  summer  2005 3000 activists from 45 regions of Russia gathered at the camp of  The Ours on Seliger lake. Advisor to the head of the Presidential Administration  Gleb Pavlovsky  arrived at the rally and urged the activists to be ready  "to resist physically attempted unconstitutional coup".  Surkov, in turn, said,  "Grow up quickly and we will give you the country." The Ours soon got low reputation and, in fact, repeated all the mistakes of  Going Together.

Source: Polit.Ru, 16 December 2005


  Surkov's original philosophy is that there is no freedom in the world. He believes that all democratic systems  are actually manageable, so that the key to success is the ability to influence people  giving them an illusion of freedom  despite  virtual governance. According to Surkov, the only freedom is "the artistic one''.

And so in 2006 Surkov  developed an unconventional concept of "sovereign democracy" and took part in establishing the second wing  of the political system in Russia, Just Russia, that was to become a party to a full-fledged  two-party system. It is therefore suspected that Surkov contributed to liquidation  of Yukos in 2003. His grudge against Khodorkovsky only aggravated the conflict, but the real reason was  Khodorkovsky's attempt to finance  SPS opposition party and the Communist Party, that is, to beat Surkov.

Source: Kommersant, 22 November 2010


  In 2011  Surkov masterminded the ban on initial public offering of the securities of Domodedovo international airport  in London. Government bodies had been coming  on the largest private airport in Russia since  summer  2010 when  Master Bank, which serviced Surkov's agencies, refused to meet their credit obligations attached to the securities of a contractor of Domodedovo airport for about $ 1 billion rubles.

 The largest action of the campaign against the owners of Domodedovo was a terrorist attack at the airport on 24 January  2011  in which 35 people were killed. A few hours later Surkov's analysts reported to president Medvedev  that primary responsibility for making the attack possible should be  imposed  on  the airport administration. The report seemed to be carefully prepared beforehand.  

  Surkov  was rumoured to plan  bringing  a network of Moscow airports under a single control, so  he sought to take  Domodedovo from  its  current owners. It was said that Surkov was going to leave  the Kremlin in 2012 therefore he tried to arrange for himself a job as a manager of the united  network of Moscow airports.

Source: Stringer.Ru, 31 May 2011