Farewell to Timur Akulov: “This was the first diplomat of Tatarstan. State Advisor of the Republic of Tatarstan: Timur Akulov has done a lot to strengthen Tatarstan’s ties with foreign countries

There is almost nothing about Timur Akulov Lately did not say. Several years ago his name was mentioned in the press, but indirectly. Because of the scandal with my son.

Timur Akulov was called the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Tatarstan. As befits a diplomatic worker, his biography contains many secrets

In October 2015, Nadir Akulov was sentenced to five years, and his surname convicted journalists accompanied by the words: “son former leader Department of External Relations of Tatarstan and State Duma Deputy.” Yesterday Timur Yurievich Akulov died, he was only 66 years old. In a certain sense, this is the heyday of professional politicians, but Akulov’s career, in fact, ended a long time ago. Probably with the departure of his patron Mintimer Shaimiev.

On duty - to Yemen

Timur Akulov was born on April 25, 1953, almost two months after Stalin’s death in the city of Yangi-Yul, Tashkent region. There were many Tatars living in Uzbekistan at that time. They were sent to Central Asia how highly qualified specialists can help ethnically close Uzbek brothers build socialism.

The surname Akulov does not come from the word Akula, of course. Most likely, this is a derivative of the Turkic name Akkul, found in the past among the Bashkirs and Tatars in the meaning of “pure thoughts, pure soul.” There are a lot of places in the biography of our hero that you need to be able to read between the lines. After the army, young Timur worked as a ship mechanic at the Ordzhonikidze Baltic Shipyard in Leningrad. Then he studied at Leningrad University, from which he graduated in 1979 with honors with a degree in Orientalist-historian. The same university, but from a different faculty, was graduated in 1975 by lawyer Vladimir Putin, with whom Akulov has much in common in the details of his biographies.

By the end of his studies, Akulov had an ideal service record: he served in Armed Forces, was a worker, graduated from a university with honors, represents national personnel. Such people were accepted into the CPSU, and Akulov was also accepted. The Party made people professionals, he recalled many years later.

Immediately after his studies, he was sent to Yemen as a military translator. Just the year after he graduated, the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen concluded a Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation with the Soviet Union, and thousands of Soviet specialists went to the distant Arab country.

South Yemen (there was also the Yemen Arab Republic at war with it) gradually entered the orbit of the USSR until dependence on Moscow became total. The USSR invested gigantic resources in this poorest, but strategically important country in the Middle East and in return demanded complete submission from the Yemeni leadership. Akulov himself recalled the beginning of his service in Yemen somehow casually, as if he did not want to say too much: “Military translators were then trained by a special institute in Moscow, but there were not enough of them - after all, cooperation with Arab countries was intense. Therefore, civilian translators were also involved. They simply awarded the military rank of “lieutenant” ( military department we had), and were conscripted for two years. After two years in Yemen, I was asked to extend my contract for another year. There was an offer to continue working, but the family decided that military service not for us."

Military translator is a specialty under which GRU or KGB officers almost always worked. Let's remember this.

In 1982, Akulov returned to the Union as an employee scientific library Kazan University, then assistant at KSU. The position is typical for employees of the “office” who are included in the reserve. Vladimir Putin, who is only six months older than Akulov and served as a KGB station in socialist Germany, after returning to the USSR, was also assigned to the “office” at Leningrad University as an adviser to the rector.

In the mid-80s, Akulov was again sent to Yemen. In his first official biography, published in 1996, it is indicated that since 1983 he worked as an attaché at the USSR Embassy. Typically this is a HR position. foreign intelligence KGB or military intelligence GRU. Our hero started out as a translator for the USSR Ministry of Defense, perhaps he continued to work through military intelligence, or maybe he went to work for the State Security Committee. It is impossible to check this data without special access, and Akulov himself has never spoken on this topic.

Officially, until 1991, he lived in the city of Aden and worked as a teacher of scientific communism at the institute social sciences. Akulov himself recalled this official position of his with undisguised irony: “I worked as a teacher at the Institute of Social Sciences - I taught there, excuse me, scientific communism...” This word “sorry” says a lot about his real work. Once, however, he let it slip and named his place of work “ special institute». Real work Akulova worked through the International Department of the CPSU Central Committee, which was a special Soviet external intelligence service. It was attached to Secretary General Yemeni Socialist Party Ali Nasser Muhammad. After the 1986 coup d'etat, the post of secretary general was taken by Ali Salem al-Beid, but he did not change the entourage of the ousted leader: Akulov also worked for him. Our hero accompanied both Muhammad and al-Beid on their frequent visits to the USSR.

To decay Soviet Union Akulov is a young intelligence officer and diplomat, a military translator and Arabist by training, who has completed special service close to the government leadership of Yemen. Overall a professional high class without a job because the country he worked for ceased to exist.

Akulov never spoke about his military rank, he started as a lieutenant. His service abroad ended in 1991, when he was 38 years old, which, given the work he did, was at least a colonel. 39-year-old Putin was a lieutenant colonel in 1991.

From a teacher of “scientific communism” in a country that lost communism to an adviser to Shaimiev

From Yemen, Akulov returned to Kazan University to a dismal position as a teacher of scientific communism - in a country that had just abandoned communism. But very quickly our hero became an adviser to the recently elected president of Tatarstan, Mintimer Shaimiev. “I accidentally left the main building of the university, stood with someone, talked,” Akulov recalled in an interview with the publication “ Real time" - Vasily Nikolaevich Likhachev passes by. I didn’t know that he was already the vice-president of Tatarstan. Well, I broke away from real life. And we also knew each other from university. He said hello and asked: “Are you back? Well, come see me,” he gets into the Volga and drives off. I said to my friend with whom I was standing: “What was that?” He says: “What are you doing? He's the vice president." The next day, Akulov came to see Likhachev, who took him to Shaimiev’s office, and the President of Tatarstan, after an hour-long conversation, appointed Akulov as his adviser on international issues. This whole story is very reminiscent of quite famous episode, how Putin came to the post of assistant to the chairman of the Leningrad City Council and the future mayor of St. Petersburg Anatoly Sobchak and also on international issues.

Probably, one day historians will write a book about how former employees of the Soviet secret services were sent to work for the leaders of the new democratic Russia. Yeltsin had Korzhakov, Sobchak had Putin, Shaimiev had Akulov.

As a presidential adviser, Akulov worked on a grand scale. After the collapse of the Union, Tatarstan received complete freedom of action and began to weave its own political matrix. Using old contacts in Moscow, Akulov quickly organized Shaimiev’s meetings, first with the ambassadors of Arab states, and then brought the president to international level, organizing a meeting with Turkish leader Turgut Ozal and Prime Minister Suleyman Demirel. Of course, now it is difficult to imagine the effect of these visits. But then the meeting former secretary the regional committee with the leadership of a foreign state was like a bomb explosion - nothing like this had happened in the history of Kazan since 1552.

“Shaimiev grew up before my eyes,” Akulov recalled. - On initial stage he was, yes, indeed, the first secretary of the regional committee. I was waiting for instructions, maybe - I don’t know - instructions from Moscow, something like that. And then he already formed his own position.”

Two Arabists: Primakov and Akulov, and connections with Saddam

In 1996, Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev was replaced by the director of the foreign intelligence service, Yevgeny Primakov. Like Akulov, he was an Arabist, and the two longtime work acquaintances developed an excellent relationship. If under Kozyrev Akulov worked around Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which was simply presented with a fait accompli about the next foreign contacts of Tatarstan, then serious work began with Primakov.

In the mid-90s, Akulov was already unofficially called the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Tatarstan. He said that he called the Foreign Ministry and said: “Guys, we have made this decision.” The only thing Primakov demanded of Akulov was: “You report what you are doing there. Don't be a partisan anymore." What reports Akulov gave, what tasks and advice he received from Primakov, we will not know for a long time. But the strategic alliance of two politicians - Shaimiev and Primakov - began to take shape even then and finally took shape in 1999.

It was Yevgeny Primakov who planned to appoint Akulov as Russian ambassador to Iraq five years before the American invasion there. In the mid-90s, Tatarstan actually developed very good relations with Saddam Hussein. Shaimiev's people, Akulov and, for example, Ravil Muratov, had personal audiences with the Iraqi dictator. But Akulov’s job as ambassador in Baghdad did not work out. Boris Yeltsin dismissed Primakov in the spring of 1998 and appointed 35-year-old Sergei Kiriyenko to the government.

Tatarstan quickly became a taste. “We planned at least two years ahead. Presidential visits began to be prepared 6–8 months in advance. Every presidential visit. I lived on an airplane for almost 20 years,” Akulov recalled after his resignation.

In 2010, Shaimiev resigned as president. Akulov worked with Minnikhanov for only a year and left after his patron. He did not hide his disappointment that his place as head of the Department of External Relations was replaced by a young and knowledgeable Iskander Muflikhanov. However, Akulov’s successor quickly left this job.

Professional and friend of Khakimov

Akulov’s position in the Tatarstan government system was somewhat distant, which may have prevented him from doing more successful career and become the prime minister of Tatarstan, for example. Akulov was not a member of clans and families, but was valued by management for his professionalism and nothing more.

The only person with whom he had friendly relations in power was an intellectual, the son of a poet and, like our hero, adviser to President Shaimiev, Rafael Khakimov.

After his resignation, Akulov was offered to work in the State Duma. For Tatarstan, work in parliament is often the final stage of a career. Akulov was no longer included in the new convocation of parliament; he was tormented by an oncological disease, which ultimately took his life.

People like Akulov never write memoirs; we can only read between the lines about their work.

Graduates 2013 Timur Akulov

Timur Akulov

Galloping through life. From Europe to Asia

Timur Akulov graduated from the Faculty of Journalism of the Russian State University for the Humanities in 2013. Currently, he is an employee of the online publication Lenta.ru

- What are you doing now?

I work for the online publication Lenta.ru. I deal with news and prepare longreads. This is what we call large materials. My theme is “from life”. Interesting stories and events. This is completely different from what I did before. Before that, I was in business journalism: I worked for the Rumedia holding: business portal BFM.ru, radio “Chocolate” and “Business FM”. He was involved in real estate. Prepared extensive materials, interviews, and analytics on both the Russian and European markets. Radio “Chocolate” also had a program about real estate, but it was more “light” in style.

- How do you find material “from life”?

First of all, communication with people. You are in constant search. I heard something somewhere and read more about it. We work with very big amount foreign content.

- Have you tried yourself in television journalism?

I tried it, but felt it wasn’t for me. I had experience working on the TV channels “Russia” and “Moscow 24”. I’d start, then realize, “okay, this doesn’t really suit me.” Didn't fit various reasons. I'm generally that kind of person. I try to find what interests me. I can't do things that don't excite me.

I had a dream during university: to travel around the world. When I graduated from university, roads opened up. There was a very, very long time. You don't even know what to do. September is coming, and you don't have to go anywhere. I traveled around Europe, America, looked into Africa, then went to work in Indonesia as part of the program. A lot of smart girls and boys decided to take advantage of similar programs and go to work abroad. It happens like this: you sign a contract, come to the country of your choice, they pay you a salary, they give you housing. The most important thing is new experience, English practice. It was a very cool time!

- Did you start practicing journalism during your studies or after graduating from university?

Of course, I worked during my student years. Student years were very fun: parties, walks. Even starting from your second year, you can work twice a week in absolutely any publication, on any TV channel. Or just get yourself an internship. This will give you two things: practice and experience. The higher your salary will be when you graduate from university. When you come to a company or somewhere else and they see your work experience (no matter what you did), there is a greater chance that they will hire you.

- Tell us about your teachers: who helped you or liked you the most?

I had two favorite subjects. I won't say exactly what they are called. The first one is “Sound in Cinema”, I think. There was an incredibly interesting teacher from the Kultura TV channel. The second subject is “History of Cinema”. He was taught by a very good teacher. She flew around different countries, knew the works of all the directors.

- Did you work for STK?

Yes, at first I filmed stories. But then I had to choose: study or film, and I chose study. And before entering the university, I worked in a children's television studio: there we filmed reports, made short films on different topics, mostly social. One of the films of which I was the author once won the Grand Prix at the Stalker festival in Moscow. I advise you to devote more time to practice - nothing can replace it.

- Do you think that RSUH is a worthy university?

Of course I do. If we take, for example, MGIMO, then there is a label. But the quality of education, at least at the Faculty of Journalism at the Russian State University for the Humanities, is much higher.

Chrysanthou Alexandra

Fedorova Svetlana

Photo: Ilnar Tukhbatov, Mikhail Kozlovsky (archive of the press service of the President of the Republic of Tatarstan)

In the 90s, Tatarstan, under new conditions, built external relations with foreign countries. Activities in unusual economic and political conditions required non-standard approaches and bold decisions. One of those who stood at the origins of this direction of work in the leadership of the republic was Timur Akulov.

The young Arabist, who had recently returned from a business trip to the Middle East, became an adviser to the first President of Tatarstan, Mintimer Shaimiev, on international issues in 1991, and in 1995 headed the Department of External Relations of the Office of the President of the Republic of Tatarstan. Today Timur Akulov turns 65 years old. Timur Yuryevich spoke about Shaimiev’s foreign visits, landmark meetings, trips to Afghanistan and negotiations with the Taliban in an interview with Tatar-inform news agency.

The more you “partisan”, the more opportunities you will have to give up some positions

– Timur Yuryevich, how the external relations of the Republic of Tatarstan were built in the 90s. How did this process develop?

– The process, of course, was interesting. Firstly, I will tell you how I got into this system in the first place. I worked in Yemen, teaching at the Institute of Scientific Socialism for members of the local socialist party. And in 1991 I came on vacation, they said that I would have to go there for another two years. In principle, I agreed because the working conditions were decent. I came to the Union, and then the August events began, everything fell apart. And it was unclear what to do, what to do and what would happen next. It was already clear that the Soviet Union would collapse, since there were all the signs that it would not exist as such. But what will happen to Russia? Which path will she take? Nobody knew about this, especially since at that time I did not work here in party work, but worked as a teacher at the university. I didn’t know our party workers, I didn’t know our economic workers, especially I didn’t know who Shaimiev was, not to mention Musin, Usmanov and others.

It turned out as follows. I went back to the department and asked the head of the department to give me a month to prepare a new series of lectures. Because the lectures I worked with in Yemen would not have been held here. I began to prepare and at that time, quite by chance, I met Vasily Nikolaevich Likhachev, who was the vice-president of the Republic of Tatarstan at that time. He came up to me and asked so sternly: “Are you back?” I say yes, I’m back. “Well, come to me,” he replied. I was a little surprised: the same teacher as me, only from the law faculty, not the history department, and suddenly - “Come to see me.” Then I see him get into the Volga and drive away. I ask (the guys were standing nearby): “What is this?” “What do you mean, he’s the vice president,” they told me.

Okay, the next day I came to him, and he began to tell me: “The situation is changing, we will engage in international activities.” I say: “Vasily Nikolaevich, what International activity? In the Soviet Union, in addition to Russia, Belarus and Ukraine were members of the UN, but none of these republics could take a single step without the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs. All of them performed only protocol functions. “No,” he says, “now the situation has changed, let’s think about it. Let’s write what you think is possible.” I wrote it on two pages, brought it, and gave it away. Three days later he calls me and says: “Everything is fine, you will be my adviser on international issues.” I say: “Vasya, what are we going to do?” He says: “We’ll figure it out, go to Shaimiev first.”

To be honest, I was afraid of the first secretary of the regional committee, because I had a period of time when I worked in the international department of the CPSU Central Committee and accompanied delegations of Arab communists to our regions. I saw many of our regional committee secretaries and understood what they were and who they were. I went a little upset. And you know what surprised me? I saw a different person: this was not a typical regional committee secretary. It was normal person, who spoke humanly. And so he and I probably talked for about forty minutes - I don’t even remember what.

The next day Vasily Nikolaevich came and said: “Go to the personnel department, write a statement.” I went to the personnel department and wrote a statement asking to be accepted as a consultant on international issues for the vice president. I give it to the head of the HR department, and he says it’s written incorrectly. I was a little scared: I taught in Arabic for three years, I thought that I had forgotten Russian and had probably made mistakes. They tell me: “Go, go to Likhachev.” I came to him, and he said: “Of course, it’s written incorrectly. Shaimiev said that you will go to him as an adviser.” And that's how it started for me.

And it started out very interesting. Because, indeed, the subject of the Federation did not have any amount of work, nor any powers, nor any responsibilities for international activities at that time. And I never called our work diplomacy. This can be called paradiplomacy, it can be called people's diplomacy, but rather, it is the international activity of the subjects of the Federation. Because diplomacy is too wide a range of issues that are resolved at the center, for which it is responsible and for which the subjects of the Federation are not responsible.

– How did the first working days begin in new position?

“I wrote a statement, came, sat in the office, sat for a day or two, read literature and couldn’t understand anything. And then there’s another moment - I don’t know what’s happening in Russia in general. What are the federal government's next steps? What will be the further steps of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs? Russian Federation? What will be the further steps of foreign countries that want to cooperate with us? We can cooperate with foreign country, but with what powers? What we can? In the cultural field - yes, of course, it is possible, in education it is possible. But the most important thing in economics is whether we have the right to engage in foreign economic activity? No one has regulated this yet, no legislative framework, there is nothing.

In general, I stayed for two weeks and then left for Moscow. Because I had comrades there with whom I worked in the international department. They still acted in some way, the Union still existed. I came and said: “Seryozha, this is how it is.” He says: “Do what you want, now it’s unclear what will happen, so the more you do, the better. The more “partisan” you become, the more opportunities you will have to give up some positions.” . And this, by the way, helped me a lot. How can we at least lure some foreigners? There were no foreigners. He says: “You know, no one will go. Because everyone is afraid of Tatarstan: the “island of communism”, and separatism in general, and in general everything is bad in Tatarstan. So I don’t think any ambassador will agree to go.” And then he said that he arrived the day before yesterday new ambassador Arab League, Mr. Muhanna Dorro. I went to see him, we sat down, drank tea, I told him about Tatarstan: what was happening, how it was happening, what we were thinking and, in general, how we would continue to live. He says: “Listen, I’m interested, I’ll come to you.” I understand that if I don’t take him tomorrow, then in a week he won’t come, because they will tell him that there is nothing to do in Tatarstan. I say: “Let’s go tomorrow?” He says: “How is tomorrow?” And I say: “I’ll wait one day and we’ll go together.” And let's go.

And so we arrived together, showed him Tatarstan, showed him what was happening. Mintimer Sharipovich spoke generally about the position that the republic takes in relation to what is happening in the country. To be honest, he liked it. A week after leaving, he called me and said: “Come, I’m gathering all the Arab ambassadors at my place, tell me about Tatarstan.” And so he gathered all the Arab ambassadors there. I talked for about forty minutes, and in the end it turned out that many of them, in principle, do not object to working with Tatarstan. However, the old school continued to play its role - it was necessary to obtain permission from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“Over these 20 years we have visited a large number of countries, and there was not a single country where the president of our republic was not met by top officials"

– How the relationship was built federal structures, with the Russian Foreign Ministry?

– Unfortunately, Andrei Kozyrev was the Minister of Foreign Affairs at that time. I would say that this was a person who did great harm to the Russian Federation. He gave away almost all the real estate that belonged to the Soviet Union. Now we are forced to buy the same buildings that he once gave away for free.

The question was what at the first stage? We had to explain that we are not going to leave the Russian Federation and we have no separatism. It was necessary to explain that the most important task that the Republic of Tatarstan sets for itself is to establish economic ties that were broken after the collapse of the Soviet Union. And you understand perfectly well that all our large enterprises - KAMAZ, an aircraft plant, a helicopter plant - they are highly dependent on components that come from other countries of the former Soviet Union. Something had to be done, and Shaimiev set the task - we need to restore connections so that we can directly enter our mechanical engineering enterprises without any Soviet ministerial structures - enterprise to enterprise. This is where diplomacy began.

We began to travel and establish connections with all states - with Ukraine in order to supply components to our helicopter plant, and with the Baltic states, and with Uzbekistan, and with all our other former republics of the Soviet Union. I can honestly say that there was a period when they, too, did not understand well what was happening, and therefore everyone met halfway. That is, I didn’t feel any resistance. After we established economic ties, the task of establishing and international relations. That is, connections with international organizations– both with UNESCO and the UN. There was even such a moment - a delegation was gathered and went to NATO. At that time, the commander of NATO forces in Europe was General Shalikashvili. And when we arrived there, everyone looked at us and did not understand anything - who are we, where are we from and what kind of Tatars are we? In general, there were many things that were unclear.

– Who did you manage to build connections with at first?

– The first and, I believe, breakthrough visit, which was made at the diplomatic level by the president of our republic, was the visit to Turkey. This also happened completely spontaneously: someone advised Mintimer Sharipovich to go to Turkey, maybe something will work out, at least we’ll start some kind of relationship with them. There I met the adviser to the President of Turkey. I, too, was an adviser to the president, and therefore, when I arrived in Turkey, I asked that a person of equal rank work with me. He turned out to be a very decent person, we sat and talked with him for two days. Then he says: “Okay, sit down, I don’t guarantee that Ozal (the President of Turkey) will receive him, but Demirel, this is the prime minister, I will ask him to receive the President of Tatarstan.”

And all this was done secretly, because I understood perfectly well that if the Ambassador of the Russian Federation knew about this, then, of course, there would be objections on his part. Not the same level: the president of the country and the head of the subject are not equivalent. Therefore, we hid this matter from Chernyshev, who was the ambassador.

– What year was this?

– It was 1993. And a day later he returned from Ankara (I was in Istanbul) and said that Demirel would receive him for 15 minutes. I came home joyful, and we were just creating joint venture"Taturos", and we had to get the blessing of the Turkish leadership. It turned out this way - we flew to Turkey, Chernyshev met us, went to see Demirel, instead of 15 minutes we sat and talked for an hour. Then we leave the hall: Shaimiev, Demirel, Chernyshev are walking in front, the adviser and I are walking behind. Suddenly he pulls me by the jacket and says: “Tomorrow you are flying to Istanbul, Ozal will fly there, he also wants to meet, just don’t tell anyone.” It turned out that during this trip we had two meetings with the leaders of the Turkish state, and then, remember, we developed very good relations with Turkey. We have worked closely together for quite some time, and we continue to work together now. This was the first breakthrough trip.

Then it was easier for me, because when I came to any country, the same Egypt, I said that the President of Tatarstan should meet with Hosni Mubarak. They told me: “What are you doing?” And I said: “So what? Ozal met, why can’t Mubarak meet?” This argument later went off the rails. Almost during these 20 years that I worked for Shaimiev, we visited a large number of countries, and there was not a single country where the president of our republic was not met by top officials.

There was a comical incident - we were flying from Iran after a meeting and landed in Azerbaijan. We land on the runway, Shaimiev says: “Look what’s happening!” And there is an honor guard of three branches of the military. They stopped, Heydar Aliyev came up, they hugged, went and got into the car. Foreign Minister Hasan Hasanov says to follow him, and Blokhin (Russian Ambassador to Azerbaijan) began to object: “You have no right, this is an abuse of power, why an honor guard? And please tell Aliyev that the Russian side is protesting.” Hasanov approached the President of Azerbaijan and told what the ambassador said. Aliyev replied: “Tell Blokhin that I am the owner, he is my guest. I accept it as I want.”

– How did that meeting go?

– This visit was quite successful. And we have the only interstate document - this is an agreement between Tatarstan and Azerbaijan. Because we do not have the right to sign such agreements with other states. And it turned out this way. We have prepared a document. This is what I usually did: I prepared an agreement or contract and sent it to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. And then decent people already appeared in the Foreign Ministry - Valentina Ivanovna Matvienko, Igor Sergeevich Ivanov, then the late Evgeny Maksimovich Primakov. Quite decent people who were understanding.

As a rule, I took these documents to Valentina Matvienko. I bring it to her and she approves it. And here were the signatures of the Deputy Prime Minister of Tatarstan (Ravil Muratov held this position with us at that time) and the Deputy Prime Minister of Azerbaijan Abbas Abbasov. And an amazing thing: I show Blokhin and say that we will sign this document. He says we don't have the right to do this. I say that Matvienko’s signatures are here, this is permission. You are an ambassador, she is a leader, you must obey. No, he says that we have no right and that if we sign, he will stand up and protest in the hall.

We again went to our leaders. We arrive, and they are standing and talking. Well, they have old memories of the communist past. “Mintimer, remember, I came to you, there was a bad traffic cop who stopped all the traffic, I asked you to take him off, did you take him off?” - said Aliyev. These are the conversations. And Hasan Gasanov comes in, shaking all over, explains that the Russian ambassador is making claims, Shaimiev immediately turned to me: “But you didn’t agree, or what?” I say that I have agreed, but the ambassador objects. Heydar Alievich looked at Shaimiev and asked why the deputy prime ministers signed: “You and I are not people, or what? Let's sign." Here I objected that we have no right to do this. This is a violation of all international norms; it turns out to be an interstate agreement. In practice, it turns out that you recognize Tatarstan as a sovereign state. Aliyev asked why I was afraid - I replied that I was not afraid of anything. I asked if I was afraid that I might be fired from my job. He replied that I don’t know, but it could happen. He asked who would remove me from work, and I answered: “Shaimiev.” Aliyev asked Shaimiev if he would remove me from work, and he replied that he would not. Then Aliyev told us to go and rewrite the document. Let's go and rewrite it. After that it was necessary to see the ambassador.

This is stupidity - sometimes diplomats make mistakes that cannot be made. Basically, diplomacy is the art of making your thoughts become the thoughts of the person you are talking to. That is, you gradually need to turn the conversation so that he comes to this thought. It was not you who imposed this idea, but he himself came to it.

Sanctions give Tatarstan a chance to reach higher high level compared to other subjects

– Has some form of agreement between a subject of the Federation and another state still not been worked out?

- No, everything is already there. There are already laws: there are ours, and federal laws, which regulate the signing of documents. This is why I gave the documents to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Okay, we will sign some paper, some document with some country, but at the same time we don’t know how the Russian Federation federal state there may be other obligations to that country or third countries that may conflict with our agreement. To prevent this from happening, it is necessary (as in Marxism-Leninism - “three sources, three components”) to look in all directions and protect yourself from all sides. Otherwise, you can make so many mistakes that you will have to correct them for a long, long time and apologize for a long, long time.

– What is the role of the region in smoothing out conflicts with other regions?

– I have some doubts about the term “region”. A region is something more than a subject of the Federation. We are still subjects of the Federation. And then, as Zhirinovsky proposed, we will unite seven subjects into one region and then we will talk about regions. Especially in the current conditions, the constituent entities of the Federation play a very important role, because investors who are prohibited from working with the Russian Federation as a whole, in principle, have the right to work with the constituent entities of the Russian Federation. Therefore, we now need to use this moment as intensively as possible and attract investors.

I am very happy for our Tatarstan, every time I watch TV and every time I am happy: enterprises are opening, the Elabuga Special Economic Zone is working, the Mendeleev Plant is working - everything is working, everything is charging. And while these sanctions exist - of course, it’s a sin to say so, but what to do - I think this gives Tatarstan a chance to reach a higher level compared to other entities. But for this it is necessary, I say again, to prepare very competent feasibility studies for any project. If we cook incorrectly, it is immediately obvious.

Sometimes this happened - some potential investor came and they started telling him: “Let’s do it this way, this way, this way.” He studies, and in the morning I come for breakfast, he says: “Okay, I won’t do anything, I’m off.” I ask why. Therefore, he explains that in our project it is written that we will steal everything. That is, they see everything. And therefore, any wrong movement, any inaccuracy, even a mixed up word can have an impact.

There was such a case. The Soviet Union hosted a military delegation from Kuwait. We also showed them the zoo. Then our people went to them, and the Kuwaiti Defense Minister said: “Listen, I would buy polar bear" And in Arabic “deb” is a bear, “dobaba” is a tank. The translator, apparently, was either tired or something else, and translated that they wanted to buy white tanks. Our people are wondering why they need white tanks. He says he doesn’t know - they ask him to ask again. A military man from Kuwait again says that he would buy a polar bear. The translator repeated: “You see – white tanks.” Much depends on the translation.

I have remembered for the rest of my life how much the work of a translator means. When Shaimiev was on a visit to America, at the Kennedy School at Stanford University, students there came to his lecture. The translator was so great that he did not translate the words, but translated the meaning of what Shaimiev wanted to say. And when, ten minutes later, students began to sit on the stairs and listen to him, then for me it was a triumph of the human mind. I watch how the translator talks, he doesn’t make any ad-libs, but simply translates what Shaimiev says purely and beautifully in American English with an understanding of the American mentality. And the applause after the performance was my greatest pride. I will remember this translator for the rest of my life – it’s very cool.

– During Shaimiev’s visits to Arab countries did you act as a translator?

– When no one was around, I translated for Shaimieva, but usually there was a translator.

“All my life I have been scolded by the heads of the apparatus, why don’t I hold meetings”

– Tell us about the structure of the department you headed. And how different are the activities involved now?

– Time passes, everything changes, realities change, life changes, attitudes towards this or that event change, approaches change. And to say that one department created in 1996 should remain that way, I think, is not entirely correct. The department was created to support the activities of the President of the Republic of Tatarstan. When it was created, we practically supported the activities of the president, the prime minister, the mayor, and everyone else. Then there really was such a need: there were no specialists - one, two - no one knew what the tasks were and how to solve them, here it was necessary not to make mistakes. And so as not to be mistaken, we, of course, took the path that created the Department of External Relations.

Until 1996, I was an adviser, and then I felt that I simply couldn’t physically pull it out. Once I did the math, it turned out that I was on a business trip for 176 days a year - what kind of work is that? Therefore, we consulted and decided to create a Department of External Relations. There was an assumption - let's create a Ministry of Foreign Relations. I say, you know, the Americans have a department, and let us also have a department. Why should we anger, why should we cause displeasure or give an opportunity for speculation to someone in Moscow - they have the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, they deal with foreign affairs... Everything must be taken into account. And so, modestly – the Department of External Relations. And everyone understood perfectly. And when traveling abroad, no one called me director of the department, they called me minister.

– How was the personnel issue resolved?

– I consider this to be my greatest successful work. Because I've never hired anyone. Here they recommend: “Eh, eibet malai. Tatarcha soileshe? Ruscha soileshe? Englishche soileshe? Yuk, kiryage yuk!” That's all. And that was the end of it. How did I usually do it? A man came, I talked to him and then set conditions: he works for six months, and if it doesn’t work out, then we part with him without hard feelings. And out of many candidates, I believe, I managed to recruit the most professional 26 people who could cover everything: protocol, diplomatic activities, economics, could accompany, and anything else. Well, it's a lot of work.

All my life I have been scolded by the heads of my staff about why I don’t hold meetings. I've never held a meeting. I've always said that I can't hold meetings for two reasons. Firstly, I felt sorry for people’s time. Twenty-six people are sitting, and I am talking with Rustem and assigning a task to Rustem alone. What should the rest of us do? Secondly, if I want to scold someone and in front of the whole team I start to attack him, it seems to me that this is not entirely correct.

Therefore, I preferred to do this: I came, wrote down the amount of work that needed to be done, and called those employees I needed to come to me. And then he told one of them that the three of them should get together and what was being discussed would be ready by tomorrow. And when they came to me and said that it couldn’t be done, I said: “It’s impossible to do because you don’t want to do it. There are no things that cannot be done. All tasks that are set before a person are feasible and can be solved. You just need to decide for yourself that you have to do it. And so, of course, it’s easier to say that this one is gone, this one has left. Nobody cares. Have a task? Decide. Can't decide? We'll help." It happens that a person does not want to do, then we need to help him. But there are no such things in diplomacy that cannot be done.

Relations with the Foreign Ministry and memories of Primakov

– You have already spoken about Yevgeny Maksimovich Primakov, who headed the Foreign Ministry for a significant time. They said that before that there were difficulties in relations with the Foreign Ministry, but later relations improved. Could you tell us more about this? After all, today it turns out that the Strategic Vision Group “Russia – Islamic World”, which was created under you and Primakov, is working.

– This group, of course, is needed. It is needed so that people come, exchange opinions and then give some things away. As for the relationship with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, I want to correct: my relationship at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was bad with Kozyrev. Because I did not understand this person and did not perceive him. Once he was giving an interview and he was asked a question: what is the diplomatic line of international behavior of the Russian Federation? And he replied that we are going in the fairway international politics United States of America. I took it and blurted out somewhere in an interview that I don’t understand how the Minister of Foreign Affairs sovereign state may say that his state is following in the footsteps of another state. After this, an order was given not to let me into the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and I met with the Foreign Ministry officials on Arbat: we were sitting in Uzbek cafe, drank tea and talked.

The second time he let me down very badly was when there were events in Kandahar. In 1995, I met with the leader of the Taliban movement (recognized as terrorist and banned in Russia and many other countries. – Runits). Mullah Omar told me that New Year our guys will meet you at home. He was a man of honor, so I believed him. I arrived joyful and reported. Andrei Kozyrev, without thinking twice, stated in an interview that we had agreed - our guys would celebrate the New Year at home and he himself would personally go after them. I am flying to Afghanistan, and the attitude towards me has become as if a stranger had arrived, and before very good attitude was. And I asked the head of the garrison what happened. He replied: “You know, Mullah Omar said that since the Minister of Foreign Affairs promised to come for the pilots, then when he arrives, then they will be given up.” A month later, Kozyrev was removed.

I digress, we were talking about Evgeniy Maksimovich. I studied at the Oriental Faculty of Leningrad University, and did an internship at a radio station in Moscow. Evgeniy Maksimovich was then the director of the Institute of Oriental Studies, and I wrote thesis on a rather scandalous topic about the situation in Palestine in 1948. And it turned out to me (according to all the documents that I raised) that Israel as a state was created by the Soviet Union. When I came to the manager and said how I was doing, he replied that I should write like that if I want to get a bad mark. And at that time, Soviet policy was such that Israel was an aggressive state created by the United States of America. What to do?

I arrived in Moscow, and the editor of the Arabic edition, Belyaev, said: “Go to Maksimych for advice.” I came to him: I am a fifth-year student, and he is an academician. I thought that he would now say: “Fuck you.” And he accepted, can you imagine? And we talked for a long time, he told me that he would even give me one book for English language, only for three days. It says how many guns we installed, how many howitzers, how many Soviet officers who went through the war and went to Israel to fight the Arabs. So he told me to write. I replied that I would get a bad grade. And he: “If you get a bad grade, you’ll come to work for me.” Amazing man was, we then communicated with him several times. You have to have the courage in uncertain conditions - in this country, with such a president - to turn around a plane flying to the United States when they started bombing Yugoslavia. He turned the plane around at his own risk and flew away in protest against the bombing.

– Essentially, this was a change in the vector in our foreign policy. This was already happening.

– No, it didn’t lead to this, because the majority remained the same Yeltsin henchmen. But the fact that he took such courage upon himself was, of course, a big blow for the whole international life. Especially for Americans.

“It seems to me that the Americans destroyed Libya on purpose in order to undermine Europe.”

“We moved so smoothly from the region to larger issues of international politics. Taking into account the fact that you are primarily an Arabist, I would like to know your assessment of the situation in the Middle East and Syria, and the activities of our country in this region?

– I’ll try to say it more intelligently. Wherever the Americans go, war begins everywhere, victims appear everywhere, murders begin everywhere, chaos begins everywhere. As I understand it, they just need all this. How did Saddam Hussein hinder them? There were no weapons there. I've been to Iraq three times, there's no chemical weapons, there was no serious threat. But he held the country and the tribes, he calmed them down. And Muammar Gaddafi? In Arabic there is an expression “al qaed” - leader or commander. When we met, I addressed him as “al kaed”, and he looked at me and said: “La ana mush kaed, ana mufakker” - “I’m not a leader, I’m a thinker.”

The worst thing is that it seems to me that the Americans destroyed Libya on purpose in order to undermine Europe. Because Libya served as a shield between Black Africa and Europe. Muammar Gaddafi held off the Nigerians, the Sudanese, the Algerians and everyone else. He fed me, because he had money, and he gave some subsidies. The borders were strengthened. And now it even seems that the Americans deliberately bombed Libya in order to shake Europe, and they succeeded.

Why undermine Europe? To say that Europeans cannot cope without them, and to offer them protection for a fee. Americans don't do anything for free. Kuwait was liberated from Iraqi aggression more than 20 years ago, but it is still paying its debts to the United States. The same will happen with Syria, the same will happen with Iraq. In Iraq, after the first war, there was an oil-for-food program. I go there and the Iraqis tell me that this is robbery. The Americans bring up their tankers, load them with free oil and take them away. Robbers! Americans are a terrible thing.

“Every time, like Scheherazade, I came and told them parables about the Pashtuns”

– You have already said that you went to Afghanistan for negotiations with the Taliban. Can you tell us more about this? What to consider during negotiations and simple communication with residents Central Asia and the Middle East?

– In this case, I am glad that I am an orientalist, that I was born in the East and lived almost all my life in the East, this also affected my mentality. When Shaimiev told me that our guys were in trouble and asked if I would go, my first thought was - that’s it, I’ll come, they’ll arrest me there and throw me in the same place as the captured pilots. We went, the representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Zamir Kabulov also went, Gabdulla Hazrat [Galiullin] also went.

Here we are, the shura (council) has gathered. At the Shura meeting they immediately told us that they (pilots. – Runits) criminals, they brought cartridges to kill their people and therefore they deserve death penalty. Kabulov tried to say something (and he speaks Pashto well), they didn’t even listen to him. That's it, the conversation is over, thank you, goodbye. I told Kabulov to give me the floor. Kabulov says: “The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Tatarstan is here, let him speak.” I started speaking Russian, but they didn’t listen. I switched to Arabic and said: “You are all Taliban, you study everything holy quran, let us speak the language of the great Koran." And I absolutely knew that they don’t know Arabic, they know what is written in the suras, but they don’t understand the meaning.

They sat for a while. Then they called the Minister of Foreign Affairs, who knew Arabic, and I told everything about Tatarstan. He talked for about forty minutes. He said that Tatarstan is an Islamic republic. Then he recalled the hadiths of the Prophet Muhammad (Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam). He said that I was a haji, everyone immediately came up and touched me.

But then I killed them with one thing: “Now,” I say, “I will tell you the tales of the Pashtuns.” And the Pashtuns have a code of honor that they didn’t even know about (“Pashtunvalai.” - Ed.). I found it in the library and studied it before going. I told them a parable. They asked for more. And I say that the next one will be on my second visit. And every time I, like Scheherazade, came and told them parables about the Pashtuns. When I arrived, they even invited the guys to the table and slaughtered a sheep.

Diplomacy is such a thing that when you go to negotiations, you should never go empty. The conversation reaches a dead end: neither you can move, nor he can move. If you start to press, it means that he will stake out a position here. If he starts to reap, then we will stand like two bulls and get nothing. I've always had good point– I started talking on a different topic. Every person you communicate with or are going to communicate with has their own hobbies. Some people collect stamps, some people collect wildflowers, some are into falconry, some are into fishing, some are into horses, some are into something else. It is impossible to know all this in detail. But in order to get a person to talk on his favorite topic, it is enough to know very little.

And when I reached a dead end and felt that everything was done - if it continued like this, then nothing would work out, he suggested a break and started talking on another topic. They look at me in surprise and then say. And the interlocutor is boiling, his tongue loosens, he has a completely different attitude towards you, he has a completely different attitude towards what you say. And gradually then you can ask: “Should we take a break or will we still agree?” He chooses to negotiate. That's all.

– Why did you choose Arabic? What was the rationale behind the choice? young man?

– The young man is generally a strange person. I went from Uzbekistan to Leningrad because both my sisters studied there. Mom was evacuated from Leningrad with a hospital to Uzbekistan and wanted to return. Therefore, she returned the sisters, and then she told me: you will finish your military service and also go to Leningrad.

I came. I have emergency service It was going well and quite successfully, I was a division sergeant major, and I arrived in uniform, just like the good soldier Schweik, to older sister. We met, hugged, and she asked me what I would do next. I say that’s it, I’ll go to military school. And before that I had already entered the Eastern Faculty Leningrad University and couldn’t get into it because I didn’t know anything. Languages ​​even more so. What languages ​​are taught in the village school? And I tell her: “That’s it, to hell with your Eastern faculty, I’m leaving.” My sister says: “I don’t want my brother to be in the military.” I say: “What, look, the newspapers write how good I am, and they promised to support me, there is a referral from the unit, some will pay for it.” The next morning she picked me up and took me to the Eastern Faculty. I came there.

I can tell you why Arabic. In the eighth grade, my mother gave me Borisov’s Russian-Arabic dictionary. Why did she give it to me, for what purpose? Without saying anything, I just brought it - here it is for you. And from that time on it went.

– Today, is there much left of what you “partnered” with?

– You know, even today you can “guerrilla,” but wisely. If you don’t harm the general line, then you are a “partisan”. I remember that Valentina Matvienko was the director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Department for Public Relations and Parliament. I came to introduce myself. She looked at me and said: “So, I know that you are a partisan. Do what you want, but if you get caught, I’ll hang you.”

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Shark business of Timur and Nadir Akulov

In the Vakhitovsky District Court of Kazan yesterday, a high-profile case reached its culmination, in which Kazan businessman Airat Galaviev demands the return of money lent to Nadir Akulov, the son of a deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation and ex-head of the department of external relations of the President of the Republic of Tatarstan Timur Akulov. The court decided to collect a debt of 1.5 million rubles from Akulov Jr. A BUSINESS Online correspondent, having attended the fateful meeting, learned how a scandalous case from a civil level can develop into a criminal one.
link: http://www.rospres.com/corruption/11977

Timur Akulov: “When a person sits in power for 20 - 30 years, he becomes surrounded by people who consider themselves infallible..”

- Almost not. Although we negotiated with the Yemeni side - both private and government agencies. For example, with the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which had a need for some devices produced in Tatarstan. And the Yemeni Ministry of Defense contacted our defense enterprises with a request to supply products. But what happened happened, contacts were interrupted. Just like with Libya and some other Arab states. Many years of work faded into the background. We do not know how these countries will behave in the future, but we do not despair and assume that some part of the agreements will be implemented.
link: http://muslem.ru/

The son of the ex-head of the Tatarstan Ministry of Foreign Affairs Timur Akulov is “divorcing” his partners into “international business”

The story of the scandalous lawsuit of Kazan businessman Airat Galaviev against Nadir Akulov, the son of the Russian State Duma deputy from the Republic of Tatarstan Timur Akulov, reached its climax yesterday. Let us remind you that the essence of Galaviev’s claims is that Akulov Jr. borrowed money from him and did not return it. On November 14, 2012, the court ruled in absentia to recover 1.5 million rubles from Akulov in favor of the businessman - this is exactly the amount the deputy’s son lent, promising to help in a large-scale international deal.

But Nadir Timurovich appealed the court's absentee decision on the penalty, citing the fact that he was not properly notified of the meeting by mail. By the way, according to his registration, Akulov lives not far from the Vakhitovsky court - on the street. Chekhov. And yet, on December 21, the court decided to cancel the default judgment on the recovery of 1.5 million rubles and sent the claim for a new trial.
link: http://www.compromat.ru/page_ 33082.htm

Timur Yuryevich, how did Tatarstan’s international activities begin?

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Tatarstan was one of the first Russian regions to declare the need to develop international relations. And in 17 years modern history achieved significant success in international arena: he is recognized and accepted in the world. One of the apologists for the need to develop and improve international relations at the regional level was State Advisor to the President of the Republic of Tatarstan, Director of the Department of External Relations Timur AKULOV.
link: http://ru.convdocs.org/docs/index-140692.html

Timur Akulov: “A difficult conversation awaited us in Kandahar”

A week after the plane was detained, the president called me to his place. He said that our citizens, residents of the republic, found themselves in such a situation, and asked what we will do? To be honest, I didn’t know what to answer. Then he said, these are our guys, let’s work... And I started working. The next day I flew to United United Arab Emirates. I found the man there who was in charge of the crew. It was flight manager Munir Faizullin. We boarded the plane and flew to Kandahar. A difficult conversation awaited us there.
link": http://tatarmoscow.ru/index. php?option=com_content&view= article&id=3114:—l——r& catid=3&Itemid=31

Timur Akulov: “Viktor Bout flew to Kazan when he was put on the international wanted list”

Yesterday, hearings in the case of Viktor Bout began in the United States. The Americans accuse him of all mortal sins - illegal arms trade, conspiracies, supporting terrorism, etc. We have already told our readers that Bout was directly involved in preparing the escape of the Kazan Il-76 crew from Taliban captivity, and before his Thai misadventures, he visited Kazan quite often. The director of the Department of External Relations of the President of the Republic of Tatarstan, Assistant to the President of the Republic of Tatarstan for International Affairs Timur Akulov, shared his opinion about this person with BUSINESS Online.
link: http://kadet.by/news/timur_ akulov_viktor_but_priletel_v_ kazan_kogda_ego_objavili_v_ mezhdunarodnyj_rozysk/2011-01-11-137

Timur Akulov: “I have long been ripe for deputy work”

On Monday, at a meeting of the State Council of Tatarstan, the speaker of the republican parliament, Farid Mukhametshin, named Timur Akulov as the main candidate for the vacant Duma seat of Oleg Morozov, who at the end of last week was appointed head of the Department domestic policy Administration of the President of Russia. KazanWeek talked with Timur Akulov about his likely appointment, parliamentary plans and Oleg Morozov’s new position.
link: http://kazanweek.ru/article/3127/

Timur Akulov opened a children's playground in Yelabuga

The deputy donated a playground for children at the request of the residents themselves. On September 2, State Duma deputy Timur Akulov opened a children's playground in Yelabuga. It was located in the courtyard of house No. 17 on Mira Street in the 6th microdistrict of the city.

Previously, there was a stone structure in this place in the form of the Yelabuga settlement, but it gradually fell into disrepair and turned into an ordinary dump of stones. Fear for the children forced the residents of the yard to sound the alarm and contact Timur Akulov personally.
link: