Deputy and Special Representative
Before Yeltsin’s resignation, Primakov supported the Fatherland – All Russia electoral faction, which at that time was the major opponent of the pro-Putin Unity, and launched his presidential bid. Initially considered the man to beat, Primakov was rapidly overtaken by the factions loyal to Vladimir Putin in the Duma elections in December 1999. Primakov officially abandoned the presidential race in his TV address on 4 February 2000 less than two months before the 26 March presidential elections. Soon he became an adviser to Putin and a political ally. On 14 December 2001, Primakov became President of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
In February and March 2003, he visited Iraq and talked with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, as a special representative of President Vladimir Putin. He brought to Baghdad a message from Putin to call for Saddam to resign voluntarily. He tried to prevent the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, a move which received some support from several nations opposed to the war. Primakov suggested that Saddam must hand over all Iraq's weapons of mass destruction to the United Nations, among other things. "Saddam tapped me on the shoulder and went out of the room", Primakov recalled. Saddam showed strong confidence that nothing terrible will happen with him personally. In Primakov's opinion, this confidence was the result of Iraqi secret relationship with U.S., and the rapid execution of Saddam did not allow him to "say the last word" to uncover the whole game. "And if he had said all this, I assure you, it was very uncomfortable to sit in the President chair for the current President of the United States", Primakov assured. However, Saddam's execution was anything but rapid. He was captured in December 2003, allowed to speak at length many times during a long, open trial, and not executed until December 2006.
In November 2004, Primakov testified in defense of the former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milošević, on trial for war crimes. Earlier, he was the leader of a Russian delegation that met with Slobodan Milosevic during NATO bombing of Yugoslavia.
On 11 December 2007, Primakov said at a meeting with Putin that the course followed by Putin should be continued, as Putin prepares to leave the presidency in 2008. He said that there were two threats to this course: one from neo-liberals and the oligarchs, and one from those seeking the merger "of the state apparatus with business" in order to create an "administrative-market society".
On 21 February 2011, Primakov announced that he would resign as President of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, effective 4 March 2011.
Read more about this topic: Yevgeny Primakov
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