Ivan Petrovich Rybkin (b. January 5, 1946) is a Russian politician; was Chairman of Russia's State Duma in 1994-1996 and Secretary of the Security Council in 1996-1998.

Early life

He was born in Semigorovka, Voronesh Oblast. In 1968, Rybkin graduated from Volgograd Agricultural Institute, and in 1991 from the Soviet Academy of Social Sciences. After a career on lower ranks of the Communist Party, Rybkin was elected as peoples' deputy to the congress of the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic in 1990. In 1993, Rybkin became a member of the Agrarian Party of Russia. That very year in December, he was elected deputy of the State Duma.

Political career

Speaker of Russian State Duma

In 1994, Rybkin was elected speaker of the State Duma. In January 1995, he became a member of the Security Council of the Russian Federation. In July of that year, Rybkin became a leader of the Regions of Russia Bloc. In March 1998, Rybkin was appointed Deputy Prime Minister for Commonwealth of Independent States affairs.

Presidential candidate

In 2004, Rybkin was nominated for the Russian presidential elections. During the campaign, on February 22004, in his article in the Kommersant and Novaya Gazeta newspapers he accused incumbent President Vladimir Putin of being an oligarch involved in shady business activities with Yury Kovalchuk, Mikhail Kovalchuk, Gennady Timchenko, KiNEx and the Russia Bank, which allegedly swallowed up a vast share of the nation's financial flows. Rybkin's charges were not covered by TV and remained unknown to a wider audience. ,

Alleged kidnapping

In February 2004, he disappeared under mysterious circumstances, a day after he accused the Putin administration of complicity in the 1999 bomb attacks in Moscow that led to a war in the Russian breakaway republic of Chechnya. Five days later, Rybkin appeared in Kiev. He stated later that he had been kidnapped and drugged by Russian FSB agents He claims to have been lured to Ukraine under the pretense of meeting the former Chechen leader Aslan Maskhadov. However upon arrival he says he was offered refreshments in the apartment, at which point he became "very drowsy." He says he was unconscious for four days, waking on February 10th. Upon waking he was shown a videotape in which he was performing "revolting acts" conducted by "horrible perverts". He was told that the tape would be made public if he continued with his presidential campaign.

He said he feared for his safety if he returned to Russia, and whilst he initially continued the campaign from overseas, on March 5, 2004, he withdrew from the race, saying he did not want to be part of "this farce," as he called the elections.

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