Political scientist, founder of the Effective Policy Foundation Gleb Pavlovsky died in Moscow at the age of 72. This was reported by his friend, HSE Professor Simon Kordonsky, later confirmed Pavlovsky family.
Pavlovsky was known as a key Kremlin political strategist during President Vladimir Putin’s early terms. His foundation was developing a politician’s first election campaign.
In the early to mid-2000s, Pavlovsky was an important Kremlin ideologue, participated in the creation of United Russia, pro-Kremlin youth movements and popularization of the neo-imperial idea. In 2011, shortly before Putin returned for a third term, he fell out of favor. He actively commented on the political agenda in the Russian media, cautiously criticized the authorities.
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Pavlovsky is a former member of the Soviet dissident movement. In 1974, he testified before the KGB against his acquaintance Vyacheslav Igrunov in the case of spreading information discrediting the Soviet system, at the trial he refused them and they were removed from the prosecution.
Moved to Moscow, was the editor of the samizdat magazine “Search”. In 1982 he was arrested, testified against other dissidents – according to his own statements, only those who left the country. He was sent to live in Komi, returned to the capital with the start of perestroika. It was impossible for him to live in the city, he got the ban lifted, after meeting with the leader of Moscow, future President Boris Yeltsin, writing “Jellyfish”.
In Moscow, in the early 1990s, he met the American philanthropist George Soros. He became the director of the civil society program, which distributed modern office equipment throughout the USSR, including computers and fax machines. Together with businessman Vladimir Yakovlev, he created the Fact cooperative, from which emerged one of the largest publishing houses in Russia in the 1990s, Kommersant. He was the head of the first private news agency in Russia. Committed to political technologies.
In 1996, the Foundation for Effective Politics, founded by Pavlovsky, participated in the campaign for the re-election of President Boris Yeltsin. At the start of the campaign, the head of state had a high anti-rating and, according to all polls, lost the election to his main competitor, the head of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Gennady Zyuganov. All major Russian oligarchs, central media and law enforcement officials united against the communist victory.
The FEP engaged in dark public relations and incriminating evidence during the election. “The whole of Moscow was covered with red stickers ‘This house is subject to nationalization after June,’ the political scientist recalled in a conversation with Meduza. After Yeltsin’s victory, he began to work with the Kremlin, said participated in the creation of the Unity party – the future United Russia.
After the election victory, the team around the Kremlin planned to hold on to power by choosing a suitable successor for the president. The choice fell on the director of the FSB, Vladimir Putin. Pavlovsky actively participated in his Putin presidential campaign, worked with the future president on his image and speeches.
The Pavlovsky Foundation was the creator of several online media in the country, including Gazeta.ru, Lenta.ru, Vesti.ru and Strana.ru (many regional publications left this edition). The organization participates in the elaboration of the key points of the Kremlin’s internal policy: Moscow reduces the powers of the regions, attacks the freedom of the press and actively opposes any opposition. The fund took part in the Kremlin attack on the Yukos oil company, which ended in prison for the head of the company, Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
Gradually, Pavlovsky was removed from decision-making and assumed technical duties: oversight and public relations support for government work on the Internet. In Ukraine, the EFF participated in an unsuccessful campaign in the Rada of the Social Democratic Party, whose first number on the electoral list was politician Viktor Medvedchuk, after which the political strategist was removed from access to Putin.
In 2011, the Kremlin broke the contract with Pavlovsky – he offered to re-elect President Dmitry Medvedev for a second term, but he gave way to Putin.
Pavlovsky lived between Moscow and Austria. He was a guest on Radio Liberty. In recent years he suffered from cancer, died in a hospice. The time and location of his funeral was not released at the time of the news.
