Federation Council, the upper house of Russian parliament, has a traditionally tightly packed agenda for the autumn session, with the list of priority issues including the discussion and adoption of the state budget for next year and for the years through to 2017. But still our conversation with Valentina Ivanovna Matviyenko, the speaker of the upper house, began with a problem that has been keeping everyone on their toes for many long months.
- How long ago did you visit your native Ukraine last time?
- My small homeland is the city of Cherkassy where I lived until the age of seventeen. My relatives and school friends are still living there. I went to Cherkassy a year ago last time to attend my sister’s funeral.
I haven’t been there since then and I don’t actually know how soon I’ll be able to go there again. The new authorities in Kiev have declared me a persona non grata. Along with many others who have voiced principled viewpoints regarding the more or less recent events in Ukraine. I hope the current Russophobic outrage will wind up some day and then I’ll surely visit the places where I spent my green years.
- Did they ban the entry for you officially?
- They didn’t but I realize only too well the kind of aftermaths that might be triggered by an attempt to cross the border on my part.
- Do you feel apprehensive they won’t let you in?
- Given the hysteria we’re witnessing there today, one cannot rule out any provocations.
- A member of parliament is almost like a parlementaire, a negotiator…
- And what preceded the March 1 emergency session of the Federation Council where the senators gave consent to the use of Russian Armed Forces on the territory of Ukraine?
- You say the West doesn’t want to heed Russia. Do you have an explanation?
- Just make inquiries when you have time to spare who controls the bulk of influential newspapers and magazines. You’ll immediately see then the roots of the news coverage stratagems aimed at brainwashing people.
- And who owns them?
- And what do you think will happen to the Russian segment of the Internet? At the latest meeting of the Russian Security Council, of which you are a permanent member, ways of resisting threats in the information space were discussed. Then virtually in no time the world web was brimming with speculations about looming wholesale control…
- A group of senators are currently highly concerned that news on Internet lack positive impact. Journalists are allegedly showering their compatriots with negative content and totally spoil their mood.
- I was surprised with media reaction in regard to the speech of [senator] Igor Chernyshev and believe that the widespread concern was exaggerated. My colleague was not calling for the introduction of any kind of censorship or to limit the freedom of speech in press in any way. The speech was about keeping the wise balance in the provision of information and about avoiding unnecessary tilts or slants. No one is going to be using calculator summing up the percentage of positive news, but a viewer or a reader must have access to all available parts of a daily life, because sometimes opening a newspaper or switching on a television one could say that the end of the world arrived.
{history:4568:'Moscow jet crash':'right':'50'}- However, it is relatively hard to stick to the wise balance, when a private jet crashes into a snowplow on a take-off stripe at the Vnukovo airport in Moscow.
- This is a flagrant incident and a real tragedy. We sincerely condole and mourn the death of [Total CEO Christophe] de Margerie. It is obvious that such news temporarily blot out everything else. However, we focused at our [parliamentary] session on the tendency of pursuing the so-called ‘grease facts,’ on the biased approach to news’ selection, which media often form into a unilateral and inadequate to reality picture.
Eventually, this is what the parliament exists for and its main function to be the stage for expressing different opinions. However, an opinion of one or several senators does not reflect the general opinion of the whole chamber. Yes, as the speaker [of the parliament’s upper chamber] I must react to the delivered speech and give instructions to the Federation Council’s bodies to consider the issue. The opinion, however, becomes official when a relevant committee shapes up its own stance on the issue and senators vote in approval. I have purposefully stressed that we [senators] will not be influencing the editorial policy of any given media outlet, but we must not leave unattended concerns of our colleagues. Anyway, we are waiting for rational proposals from the [Federal Council’s] commission on media legislation, which is, by the way, chaired by Vitaly Ignatenko, who in the past was the director general of TASS news agency.
- Speaking about parliamentary readings. How much longer should it take before smoking mixtures, known as “spices,” would be banned by law?
- You have been working in Moscow for a number of years, but how did it turn out that you went to St. Petersburg to cast your vote in September’s all-nation regional authorities’ election?
- I am still a registered resident of St. Petersburg. This is not a simple formality. I am the city’s senator, its true patriot and deep inside I agree with the local saying that “St. Petersburg is definitely not the first [prime] city of the country, but is not the second.”
- If I am not wrong, your family still lives there in the city, which “is not the first city of the country, but not the second”?
- Yes, my son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter live in St. Petersburg. They have no intentions of changing their address. Sergey [son] is strongly attached to his native city. When I served in the capacity of the Russian ambassador to Malta I offered him a chance of studying at a local university. When my son flew in to Valletta for a vacation he told me that “If you will insist I will submit, but I have no intentions of leaving my home. That is where my life and my friends are.” Of course, I did not pressure him.
My husband Vladimir also cannot imagine himself living outside St. Petersburg. Unfortunately, he is ill now, but nevertheless Volodya has his own environment and his hobbies. My husband has a passion for dacha. In fact, he is a real farmer and he annually gathers an enormous harvest of cucumbers, tomatoes and, starting this autumn, paprika. There is also a garden with beautiful apple trees.
- Does he sell them at a local market?
- He gives away everything for free to his friends and people he knows and is very happy about it. Everyone knows that Vladimir Vasilyevich has outstanding vegetables and fruits.
- Do you participate in the so-called agricultural works [at dacha]?
- Unfortunately, I am not because there is no time. My husband regularly commutes between the two cities [St. Petersburg and Moscow]. During the so-called dacha period he stays in St. Petersburg and comes for winter to Moscow. Together we visit our granddaughter, who we adore.
- How old is [granddaughter] Arina now?
- She is five and a half years old now. It may be providence, but I was born on the date of the Annunciation Day and Arina was also born on the night between April 6 and 7. This is the gift my son and my daughter-in-law made me.
{article_opinion:229:'Whenever I am in St. Petersburg, the very first thing I do is to go from the airport to see my granddaughter'}- How does your granddaughter call you?
- It is in style nowadays for younger generation to address the older generation by their names, but I personally prefer the word ‘babushka’ [granny]. This word is very warm and vivid. My granddaughter represents the indigo generation, which quickly catches up on everything. She learnt to read, when she was four, then learnt the multiplication table and cites many poems by heart. She likes to cite [Alexander] Pushkin and [Nikolay] Gumilyov, who was far from being a children’s poet. She studies music and attended the school of artists with the Russian Museum [in St. Petersburg] and, following one of the museum’s tours, she described me in details the canvas ‘The Last Day of Pompeii’… She currently took an interest in chess. One day she approached her grandfather and demanded that he teach her playing chess. They both spent two hours at a chess board, studied figures and moves and then Arina asked to sign her up for a chess class. She makes presents with her own hands for my and her grandfather’s birthdays. She is a remarkable girl! She is going to school in a year, as her parents decided that if the child has such thirst for knowledge, there is no need waiting [for another year]. My granddaughter is the happiness and the joy of my lifetime. Unfortunately, I get to see her less than I want to. Whenever I am in St. Petersburg, the very first thing I do is to go from the airport to see my granddaughter.
- Your current status has an impact of certain restrictions. There is no way to sit for a chat with friends at a café or go unnoticed to a theater or cinema. Have you lost your old friends because of that?
- I will answer you in an absolutely sincere way – all our friends with Volodya from our youth are still with us. We have not lost a single one. They are ordinary people not connected with politics. We still gather in the format of families. We immediately recall how we traveled up the country, set up tents and sang songs in front of a bonfire… But unfortunately we rarely see each other. This is how the life goes.
{article_opinion:223:'All our friends from our youth are still with us. We have not lost a single one'}- So how can your friends invite you for a friendly barbeque? Via secretaries?
- Firstly, my husband is more accessible unlike me. Volodya is our coordinator. Secondly, close friends know the number of my cellular telephone and I have not changed the number for many-many years. To be more precise, since the beginning of my work in Moscow in 1990s.
- You answer the calls personally?
- Of course. But not during my working hours… Believe me, none of my friends abused our good relations and turned to me with a request, which could place me in an inconvenient situation. However, I try myself to help whenever I see that there is a necessity. It is a tradition since the times of the Komsomol [Young Communist League].
- October 29th marks the birthday of VLKSM [All-Union Lenin Communist Youth League]. Do you plan celebrating?
- I used to escape my routine and meet the colleagues from the Petrogradsky district committee of Leningrad [former name for St. Petersburg], where I started my career. I cannot manage to do so in recent years, but nevertheless there will be a load of telephone calls and congratulations on October 29. No matter how the Komsomol is treated nowadays, it was a good school. Yes, there was plenty of ideological trash, but nevertheless I am grateful for my communications with people, for acquired organizational skills and for friends I made.
- Your passion for sports also comes from the times of Komsomol?
- It comes from my childhood. I still exercise every morning, go for a swimming several times a week and definitely exercise yoga on my weekends.
- Do you do yoga meditating?
- My coach spoke about it, but I do no need it, while as for the rest… I physically long for yoga exercises. In cases, when I skip exercises because of my work, I somehow find myself later in a gym.
I play tennis less recently, but I try not to forget about a tennis racket. As soon as the winter comes there will be certainly mountain skiing. I cannot think of a better way to freshen up my thoughts.
- The beauties of Alpine Mountains are not accessible for you. But it is temporarily…
- But we have many Russian mountain skiing resorts, including Krasnaya Polyana [in Sochi]. I have not skied there yet. Now I can change the tracks there as well.
- Your personal bodyguards probably keep you in sight on the mountain slopes as well. Does it annoy you?
- I am used to it. Moreover, the boys from the Federal Protective Service (FSO) work delicately and almost invisibly. I have known many of them for a long time, the backbone of the team has been with me since 2003, since I was in the post of a presidential envoy to the northwestern federal district.
- Do bodyguards allow you to drive the car?
- They don’t prevent me from doing so, although I have not done that for a long time. I got my driver’s license in 1974, when my husband and I bought the legendary Kopeyka, the VAZ-2101 car. It was a green car, we loved it very much. We still remember it.
{article_slideshow:742252:'What they drive world leaders' cars':'right':'50'}- A Niva manufactured in 1992 is registered in your name, isn’t it?
- We got rid of it six years ago under the vehicle scrapping program. There was no other way to convince my husband to get rid of the car, he was strongly against selling it. He took such a fancy to it!
- What did you buy instead?
- A new Niva. Did you doubt? Volodya does not change his habits.
- Do you have a car of your own, Valentina Ivanovna?
- First, everything in our family is common, second, working transport is enough for me, and third, even if I had a personal car, where would I drive it to? Not for shopping!
- Why not, by the way?
- A wonderful friend of mine helps me a lot in that. She has a boutique in Moscow, knows my taste, style and chooses clothes particularly for me. I can say it’s the only shopping center where I have renewed my wardrobe for many years. I keep its address secret, because there is nothing more horrible for a woman than the appearance of another woman in the same dress at a public event. Everyone wants to be unique and unmatched…
- So you do without a stylist of your own?
- I don’t see the need for him. What is more important is the personal internal sense of the color range and style. My mother had a refined taste and a sense of proportion, and tried to inculcate them in me and my sisters. She always said if she saw that something was wrong: “Valya, it’s not your style, it does not become you, the color is wrong…”
- What about your trademark style in the official dress code? Say, someone prefers hats or collects brooches…
- I don’t like hats but I like brooches. Some time ago I wore trouser suits, and then I gave it up. Now I prefer dresses. I think it’s more feminine. Plus details. Some kerchief, scarf or suitable beads, a brooch make clothes look different. I don’t want to look like a woman in a uniform.
- Men currently prevail among politicians. There are few women at the very top. How comfortable do you feel in that environment?
- Men’s company does not weigh me down, although no one makes allowances for the fact that I’m a woman. Yes, politics is not for the weak. You will be surprised, but I have most often felt envy toward myself on the part of the stronger sex. When I was sent to St. Petersburg, many thought the decision was wrong, that I won’t cope, and they hurried to say words of sympathy beforehand. But there was no failure on my part. I respect German Gref very much, and we are companions, or even friends, but during work in the government, we often raised voices at each other. But we managed to get to know each other better! German admitted once: “Valentina, I was against your election as governor. I thought you will not be good enough, but now I am taking off my hat to you. I’m sorry, I underestimated you.” He said this some 18 months after I came to the St. Petersburg administration. A true friend should probably behave like that, tell the truth and not hide anything. Alas, work prevents me from filtering interlocutors, I have to communicate with those who are unpleasant too. As regards subordinates, I don’t stand flattery and even ask people not to pay compliments. It’s no use…
- You mentioned Gref. At the recent forum “Russia Calling”, he said something like that: among Russian businessmen, the most popular application today is one for departure from the country. Do you agree with German Oskarovich? Have you spoken with him on the issue?
- We have not met but plan to. I think Gref deliberately aggravated the issue. Sometimes, such a provocation is needed to cause a dispute and provide an opportunity to speak in the maximum open manner. But if you are interested in my viewpoint, I think people who are currently trying to withdraw their capitals from Russia and build a bridgehead in the West are making a big mistake. Yes, we have bureaucracy, yes, there are enough excessive restrictions for businesses, but all the same the risks are much lower here. Today you invest money there, and no one knows what happens to it in a year or five. The rules of the game may be changed unilaterally. The origin of capitals will seem suspicious or there will be another pretext to find fault with. The accounts will be blocked, other measures will be taken and you won’t prove the truth. In my view, it is way more reliable to invest in domestic economy – construction of roads, housing, other large projects. In Russia, money is protected better.
{article_photo:743432:'Timchenko Everything has to be paid for, and acquaintance with top officials as well':'right':'50'}- If we are speaking about St. Petersburg friends… Tell us how your relations with President Putin were built.
- My cooperation with Vladimir Vladimirovich has a long history. I have known him since he worked as a deputy mayor of St. Petersburg. Then we communicated when I was the ambassador to Greece. Vladimir Vladimirovich headed the Federal Security Service (FSB), and we discussed security-related issues. Then I was appointed a deputy prime minister in the government, and our contacts became more regular. I consulted with him on many issues. I am thankful to fate that I have been working in Putin’s team for already 15 years – since 1999. I have the deepest respect for Vladimir Vladimirovich. I realize that it can be perceived as groveling, but I am speaking sincerely.
- Has your boss changed a lot over these years?
- He has matured a lot, gained political weight, authority. He has become not only a real national leader but also an acknowledged world leader. But he also has traits that have not changed. He never allows himself to shout at people he works with or even raise his voice at them. Putin behaves correctly and respectfully toward others. He never supervises the implementation of all small aspects of a task he gives. If he tasks you with doing something, he trusts you and only asks you about the final result. Have no doubts: he will be strict if something is not in a way he agreed with you. Another distinctive quality of Vladimir Vladimirovich: he values members of his team and does not throw people around. So I always had a reciprocal feeling: not to let him down or set him up, cope with the set task. It was like this during my work in the government and during the eight years that I was the St. Petersburg governor and now in the Federation Council.
- In line with the Constitution, you, Valentina Ivanovna, are the third highest top official in Russia after the president and the head of government. How hard is it for the third highest top official to get in touch with the top official today?
- Understanding how busy the head of state is, I try not to abuse it. At the same time, when I call, Vladimir Vladimirovich always answers. Maybe not at the same moment, but he will certainly return the call. It’s his style.
Valentina Matviyenko was born in Shepetovka, a town in the Ukrainian Soviet Social Republic, on April 7, 1949. Her father Ivan Tyutin was a World War II veteran and her mother Irina worked as a wardrobe assistant in a theater. Matviyenko graduated from the Leningrad Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Institute in 1972 and the Social Sciences Academy of the Communist Party’s Central Committee in 1985. In 1991, she retrained at the Diplomatic Academy of the Soviet Foreign Ministry. In 1986-1989 Matviyenko served as deputy head of Leningrad's City Council's committee for culture and education. In 1989-1989 she was chairing the Soviet Supreme Council Committee for Women, Families, Maternity and Childhood. In the early 1990s Matviyenko began her diplomatic service. In 1991-1994 she was the Soviet Union’s and then Russia’s ambassador to the Republic of Malta. In 1994-1995 Matviyenko was the Russian Foreign Ministry’s ambassador-at-large and then the head of the Foreign Ministry's Department for Liaison with the Regions, Parliament, Non-Governmental and Political Organizations. In 1997-1998 she served as Russia’s ambassador to Greece. Matviyenko is one of the three female ambassadors in Russia’s history. In 1998-2003 Matviyenko was a deputy prime minister in charge of social issues in the cabinets headed by Yevgeny Primakov, Sergei Stepashin, Vladimir Putin and Mikhail Kasyanov. She headed the governmental commissions for religious associations and compatriots living abroad. In March 2003 she was appointed presidential envoy to Russia’s North-western federal district and in October successfully ran for St. Petersburg governor, winning 63% of the vote. In December 2006, after direct gubernatorial elections in Russia were cancelled, Matviyenko was nominated by President Putin for a second term. In August 2011, Matviyenko resigned to become speaker of the Federation Council, the upper house of the Russian parliament. She was elected to the post in September, with 140 votes in favor of her candidacy. She also became a permanent member of the Russian Security Council. Her declared income totaled 3.05 million rubles in 2013.Matviyenko is married and has a son, Sergey, born in 1973. Her husband Vladimir is a retired colonel of the medical service and her son is a businessman. Matviyenko’s hobbies are tennis and alpine skiing.
Born November 8, 1959 in Luhansk, Ukraine. In 1982, Andrei Vandenko graduated from the Kiev National University of Taras Shevchenko specializing in journalism. Since 1989, he lives and works in Moscow. Vandenko has more than 20 years of experience in the interview genre. He was published in the major part of top Russian media outlets and is a winner of professional awards.