Vladislav Surkov, the new Rasputin of the Kremlin<

As true as the Kremlin has several towers, Vladislav Sourkov is the sentry.In the service of three successive presidents since 1998 -Boris Yeltsin, Vladimir Putin, Dmitri Medvedev -, this ex -publicity became, at 47, the lookout of Russian power.Number two of the presidential administration, an flagship of 2,000 employees, he draws the strings from the domestic political scene.From his Old Place office, in the heart of Moscow, this dandy-like official controls the parties, sponsor the many movements of Putinian youth, while keeping an eye on NGOs.

His manipulator talents were revealed in September, when he dispossessed billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov from the just cause party leadership.Liberal training set up at the request of the Kremlin, just a cause was supposed to counterbalance the united Russian mastodon, the bureaucrats party in power, with a view to the legislative elections of December 4.

However, the Prokhorov oligarch, owner of gold mines, a great lover of basketball and pretty girls, launched ball in the lead in politics, to the point of becoming uncontrollable.Worse, he manifested a certain independence, an unacceptable flaw in the eyes of the tandem in power - Prime Minister Putin and President Medvedev -, obsessed with the "vertical obedience".A recovery was essential.On the day of the fair cause congress, Vladislav Sourkov sent his assistants to lead an inamicale OPA on the party.In a few hours, the oligarch and his supporters were forever ousted from the political scene.Since then, they have smelled sulfur.After having criticized loud and clear the new Rasputin, "this puppet show which (...) intimidates the media and deceives the management of the country", Mikhail Prokhorov lost the ear of Vladimir Putin, who hastened to decorateVladislav Sourkov.

How did the latter rose to the peak of power?Without being of the first circle, that of men "with shoulder shoulders" (ex-members of the security services) and native of Saint Petersburg, like Mr. Putin, he knew how to make himself essential.As a good apparatchik, he cultivates the secret, grants few interviews, rarely shows himself in public.His specialty is the plot, alcoves conversations, control over parties and media."Not long ago, the editors of the mainstream media met Vladislav Sourkov every Thursday. From now on, they no longer need to be guided. They know what they have to write, who they can show'screen and how long; they also know who should not be shown, "said journalist Zoïa Tsvetova.

Born in 1964 to a Russian mother and a Chechen father whose name he does not bear the name, this discreet provincial has an unusual journey, which immediately begins with a shadow area: his birthplace.His official biography gives the village of Tchaplyguine, in the Lipetsk agricultural region, 500 kilometers south-east of Moscow, whose mother, Zoïa Sourkova, teacher, was from.Other sources claim that he was born in Douba-Iourt, 30 kilometers from Grozny (Chechnya), and that he would have been called Aslanbek Doudaev until the age of 5.One thing is certain: when his parents separate, there will never be a question of the father, Andarbek Doudaev.

After adolescence pampered in Gloubinka (the "deep province" in Russian), in Lipetsk and then in Riazan, the young Sourkov went up to Moscow.Studies are not his strong and, in 1981, he stopped everything to do his military service in Hungary.It was there that he was recruited by Soviet military intelligence (GRU), a decisive turning in his career.

In 1989, the Rastignac de Riazan gnawed its brake.Times are uncertain, the party and the army are no longer what they were, the career prospects are vague.The same year, he enrolled in a wrestling course.His coach also is pupil Mikhail Khodorkovski, a young entrepreneur from Komsomol (Communist Youth), one of the directors of the Banque Menatep.He holds out the right end.In less than ten years, Vladislav Sourkov climbed the ladder of the institution one by one.

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Thread by needle, he became director of communication at ORT, the public television channel, in 1998. In this position, he has access to all the political staff in sight.It was not long before being noticed by Alexandre Volochine, the head of the presidential administration of the time, gray eminence by Boris Yeltsine.The same year, the latter recruited him as assistant.Five years later, when Mikhail Khodorkovski was arrested, Alexandre Volochine resigns, not Vladislav Sourkov.

The Russian press sometimes describes him as the ideologist of power.This is to forget that the regime it serves is devoid of ideology.With his past as an advertiser, Vladislav Sourkov is above all expert in Acti-Prop, the political communication of the Bolsheviks, brutal and without nuances.

The man, married twice and father of four, cultivates his image of an atypical official, dilettante writer and occasional lyricist of the rock group Agatha Christie.In the black novel "close to zero", published in July 2009 under pseudonym (not translated) and of which he would be the author, he makes the hero say: "crime and corruption play the same role in social construction as'School, police and morality. Wanting to eliminate them leads to chaos. "

Skilled, he knows how to change his costume according to the speech of his different bosses.Democrat under Boris Yeltsin, absolutist with Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin Rasputin has been enthusiastic about the modernization desired by Dmitri Medvedev.As an ex-framework of Ioukos one day pointed out, the Khodorkovski oil company dismantled on the orders of Vladimir Putin, Vladislav Sourkov illustrates how much in Russia, "the cynic gene has developed faster than that of thedemocracy".

Marie Jégo

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