Kiriyenko, Sergei Vladilenovich (1962-…), served as prime minister of Russia from March to August of 1998. He was appointed by President Boris Yeltsin following Yeltsin’s dismissal of the previous prime minister, Viktor Chernomyrdin. In response to an economic crisis, Yeltsin dismissed Kiriyenko barely five months after he had appointed him.
Kiriyenko was born on July 26, 1962, in the city of Sukhumi, on the Black Sea coast in northern Georgia. He graduated from the Gorki Institute of Water Transport Engineers in 1984. He was the secretary of the Lomsomol committee of the Krasnoye Sormovo shipyards in Gorki (now called Nizhniy Novgorod). Later, he served as president of the Garantia Social Commercial Bank in Nizhniy Novgorod. During 1997, Kiriyenko held three posts—president of the Neftyanaya Kompania NORSI-Oil open-end joint-stock company in Nizhniy Novgorod; minister of fuel and power of industry in the federal government; and chairman of the board of the state’s representatives in RAO Gazprom.
