Igor Sechin |
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Igor Ivanovich Sechin (Russian: Игорь Иванович Сечин, born September 7, 1960, Leningrad, Soviet Union) is a Russian politician and businessman, who is considered a close ally of Vladimir Putin. Sechin is often described as one of Putin's most conservative counselors and the leader of the Kremlin's Siloviki faction, a statist lobby gathering former security services agents .
Igor Sechin graduated from Leningrad State University in 1984 as a linguist fluent in Portuguese and French languages. In the 1980s Igor Sechin worked in Mozambique and in Angola, officially as an interpreter with Soviet trade and diplomatic missions there. According to a number of allegations he was a GRU (intelligence agency of Russian military) resident in these African countries. According to Stratfor, Sechin was "the USSR’s point man for weapons smuggling to much of Latin America and the Middle East." Igor Sechin is said to have served with alleged international arms dealer Viktor Bout in Mozambique in the 1980s
From 1991 to 1996, he worked at St. Petersburg mayor's office, and became a chief of staff of the first deputy mayor, Vladimir Putin in 1994. From 1996 to 1997, Sechin served as a deputy of Vladimir Putin, who worked in the presidential property management department.