Career Notes: Named Prime Minister in May 1999... Was head of the FSK, the successor to the KGB, from 1993 through mid-1995... Bold invasion of Chechnya in December 1994 led to unprecedented Russian humiliation before tiny, bearded republic... Attack on Chechen kidnappers in Budyannovsk led to scores of Russian hostages being shot; nearly all Chechen gunmen escaped... As MVD chief in 1998-9 presided over nationwide doubling of contract killings, most famous of which (i.e., Galina Staravoitova) have yet to be solved... Likes Nikita Mikhailkov; may have wept during "The Barber of Siberia"...

Minor League Notes: Served in administration of then-Leningrad mayor Anatoly Sobchak, who had to flee Russia after being charged with corruption.