SHUMEIKO, VLADIMIR FILIPPOVICH

(b. 1945), Russian legislator.

Vladimir Shumeiko graduated from Rostov Polytechnical Institute with an engineering degree in 1972. He made his early career as an engineer in Krasnodar. After working at the Krasnodar Electrical Measurement Instruments Factory (1963–1970), he moved to the All-Union Research Electrical Measurement Instruments Institute (1970–1985), then returned to Krasnodar as head of the electrical instruments production association.

Shumeiko's political career began in 1990, when he was elected to the USSR Congress of People's Deputies. He followed that victory with a seat in the RSFSR Supreme Soviet. Also in 1990, he was named deputy chair of the RSFSR Supreme Soviet Committee on Economic and Property Reform. As "shock therapy" reforms unfolded, Boris Yeltsin brought several industrial directors into his government. Shumeiko, president of the Confederation of Associations of Entrepreneurs, was appointed first deputy prime minister in June 1992; in December the new prime minister Viktor Chernomyrdin reappointed him as first deputy chair.

In the fall of 1993, the Supreme Soviet began investigating several members of Yeltsin's cabinet for corruption, including Shumeiko. He briefly resigned from the government on September 1 and joined Yeltsin in plotting what to do with the recalcitrant legislature. Shumeiko returned to the government on September 22, after Yeltsin's order to dissolve parliament. The next month, Yeltsin named him Minister of Press and Information.

Shumeiko switched to the newly created Federation Council, becoming chair of that house in January 1994, a post that also gave him a seat on the Russian Security Council. He formed his own political movement, Reforms—New Course, in December 1994. Shumeiko lost his seat in January 1996, when Yeltsin changed the basis of membership in the Federation Council. Since then, Shumeiko has unsuccessfully tried to return to a legislative office. As of 2003 he was chairman of the petroleum company Evikhon.

See also: yeltsin, boris nikolayevich

Ann E. Robertson