Burbulis G. E.

First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers

Chief architect of the Russian radical reforms after the collapse of Soviet Union in 1991, Gennady Burbulis was appointed the First Deputy Chairman in the government presided by President Yeltsin on November 6, 1991. Burbulis also held the post of the State Secretary (July 19, 1991 - November 26, 1992). Along with speaker of the Supreme Soviet Ruslan Khasbulatov, he played a key role in forceful resignation of the prime minister Ivan Silayev and was one of the persons authorized to sign the Belovezh agreements that ended the existence of Soviet Union on behalf of the Russian Federation. Burbulis was an actual leader in the "reformist cabinet" in early 1992, but his views associated him with a radical faction, which clashed with the conservative majority of state officials and parliament. In attempt to prevent the Congress of People's Deputies from considering the president's impeachment, Yeltsin yielded to demands to remove Burbulis from government and signed a decree (April 3, 1992) on relieving Burbulis of his duties effective April 14. In half a year, Burbulis changed several posts in the president's administration and was finally dismissed by Yeltsin by the end of 1992.