Viktor Zubkov went from collective farms to prime minister and then Gazprom
In September 2007 Vladimir Putin surprised Russia by naming a little-known financial crimes investigator, Viktor Zubkov, as prime minister. The Duma confirmed him two days later. He lasted about eight months, then moved to the chair of Gazprom, the country's biggest company, a job he was still holding in his eighties.
Zubkov was born in Sverdlovsk Oblast in 1941 and built his early career far from Moscow. After an 18-month army term he spent almost two decades, from 1967 to 1985, in senior roles on collective farms in Leningrad Oblast, graduating in economics from the Leningrad Agriculture Institute along the way. He then rose through the regional Communist Party, overseeing agriculture and food industry.
The link that mattered came after the Soviet collapse. From January 1992 he served as a deputy on the external relations committee of the St Petersburg mayor's office, which Putin led. He went on to run the city's tax inspectorate and later became a deputy tax minister. A 1999 attempt to become governor of Leningrad Oblast flopped, winning 8.64 percent and fourth place among 16 candidates. From 2001 he headed the finance ministry's unit tracking money laundering.
His elevation on 12 September 2007, the same day Mikhail Fradkov resigned, puzzled observers. Some Kremlin watchers saw him as a caretaker who would keep possible successors competing. Others thought Putin wanted an unquestioningly loyal figure with deep knowledge of financial crime to keep rival factions in check. Zubkov even said he might run for president in 2008, but in December 2007 Putin endorsed Dmitry Medvedev instead.
His cabinet was dissolved automatically when Medvedev took office in May 2008, and Zubkov became first deputy to the new prime minister, Putin. He also replaced Medvedev as chairman of Gazprom. A 2006 poll of political experts had ranked him only the 84th most influential politician in Russia.
Source: Viktor Zubkov
