January 12, 2019, the deputy chairman of the Yabloko party, Sergei Viktorovich Ivanenko, turned sixty years old. He is one of the close associates of Grigory Yavlinsky, who stood at the origins of Yabloko. Everyone knows that the State Duma is full of dark stories and scandalous characters. But about the politics of Sergei Ivanenko, even the most knowledgeable gossip can not remember anything bad.
Biography
Our hero was born on January 12, 1959 in the Georgian city of Zestafoni. He is Ukrainian by nationality. Sergey's father was a military man, and the family constantly had to move from one place to another. Shortly after the birth of a son, Vasily Ivanenko, with his wife and child, was sent to Moscow to study at the academy. They stayed in the capital for five years, and then wandered around the cities of Siberia: they lived in Omsk, Novosibirsk and Krasnoyarsk.
At eleven, Sergei became seriously interested in chess and began to take part in various tournaments. Then the boy realized that he was unlikely to be able to achieve outstanding results in this field, and switched to study. In 1976 he entered the Moscow State University at the Faculty of Economics. After graduation, he studied at graduate school. Then he remained to work at Moscow State University as a junior research fellow. Over five years of work, he became a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Economics.
Acquaintance with Yavlinsky
In 1990-1991, Sergey Viktorovich Ivanenko held a post in the apparatus of the State Commission of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR for economic reform. There he met Grigory Yavlinsky, who in those years drew up a program to transform the USSR economy into a market economy. Ivanenko took part in the development, and subsequently began working in the Yavlinsky EPIcenter, a company engaged in political and economic research.
In December 1993, Grigory Alekseevich passed to the State Duma as chairman of the Yabloko bloc. Together with him, several EPIcenter employees participated in the elections, including Sergey Viktorovich Ivanenko. Having become a deputy of the State Duma, he received the post of deputy chairman of the Committee on privatization, property and economic activity.
Work in Parliament
In the December 1995 elections, a member of the Yabloko party, Sergei Ivanenko, again went to the Duma and became a deputy of the second convocation. He worked as deputy chairman of the Committee on Transport, Construction, Industry and Energy. In the same period, he was elected deputy chairman of Yabloko. In March 1995, Sergei Viktorovich resigned from his post in parliament and became an ordinary member of the Committee on Ecology.
In December 1999, Ivanenko was elected to the third convocation. In these elections, "Yabloko" showed a low result, compared with previous compositions, the faction in the State Duma significantly decreased, and its influence on parliamentary affairs became minimal. Deputy Sergei Ivanenko was a member of the Committee on Information Policy, as well as the first deputy head of Yabloko for organizational matters. In 2000, Nezavisimaya Gazeta wrote that Ivanenko was the second person in the party’s leadership and, as it were, Yavlinsky’s understudy.
Outside the State Duma
As a result of the 2003 elections, not a single representative of Yabloko got into the State Duma. In 2004, Sergei Viktorovich Ivanenko joined the opposition committee, founded by Garry Kasparov, and set about creating a democratic coalition, the center of which was to be his party.
In 2005, Yabloko and the Union of Right Forces put forward a single list of candidates for deputies of the Moscow City Duma. However, in June 2006, Ivanenko denied the party’s intentions to unite with anyone in parliamentary elections. Yabloko lost the regional elections: the party was not able to overcome the seven percent barrier in any of the four regions where it ran.
In September 2007, at the party congress, the final list of Yabloko candidates for participation in the parliamentary elections was approved. He was led by Yavlinsky, also Sergey Kovalev and Sergey Ivanenko entered the first three. In the meantime, the party again faced failure: it gained 1.59% of the vote and did not get seats in the Duma.
Chess
In 2003-2007, while trying to form a coalition and break into parliament, Ivanenko served as vice president of the Russian Chess Federation.
As soon as he got into the Duma, Sergey Viktorovich noticed that there are many fans of this game, and of a good level. Deputies often held tournaments in the offices of parliament. Among the opponents of Ivanenko were Stanislav Govorukhin and Alexander Zhukov. Once, Anatoly Karpov came to the State Duma, and Sergey Viktorovich played a blitz with him: he lost three games and won two. In addition, he managed to compete with Vladimir Kramnik. Once Ivanenko even became the champion of the Duma in chess. According to the politician, this game helps in any field of activity. It disciplines thoughts and provides mental health.
New Apple
At a meeting of the Yabloko bureau in March 2008, Yavlinsky expressed the view that the party should not go over to the tactics of the implacable opposition, but should establish a meaningful dialogue with the authorities. Sergey Viktorovich Ivanenko supported this position. In June, he was nominated as a candidate for the post of chairman of Yabloko, but, like Yavlinsky, he refused to take this post. As a result, the party was headed by the leader of the Moscow branch Sergey Mitrokhin. Simultaneously with the election of a new chairman, changes were made to the charter of Yabloko, in accordance with which the posts of vice-chairmen were abolished and a new party structure, the political committee, was created. It included ten members of Yabloko, including Yavlinsky and Ivanenko.
Deputy Chairman Again
In the 2011 parliamentary elections, Sergey Viktorovich headed the list of candidates from the Sverdlovsk region. But according to the results of the party’s vote, they again failed to overcome the electoral barrier.
In December 2015, the next election of the leadership was held at Yabloko. Emilia Slabunova was elected party chairman. In the same period, deputy positions were returned. They became Sergey Ivanenko, Alexander Gnezdilov and Nikolai Rybakov.
