MOSCOW. Nov 23 (Interfax-AVN) - Viktor Ivanov, deputy head of the Russian president's administration, has been unanimously elected chairman of the Almaz defense company's board of directors, a company official told Interfax-Military News Agency on Friday.
Ivanov was born in the city of Novgorod in 1950. He graduated from the Leningrad Bonch-Bruyevich Electrotechnical Institute of Comminication with a diploma in radio communication and from the KGB higher courses.
He worked as an engineer in the Vektor research and production association from 1971 to 1977. After that he joined the security service and worked there until 1994. His last post was the head of the anti-smuggling section in the Federal Counterintelligence Service department for the Leningrad region. From 1987 to 1988 he was on a mission in Afghanistan.
In 1994 Ivanov was appointed head of the administration bodies department in the St. Petersburg Mayor's Office. In 1998 he became head of the interior security department in the Federal Security Service (FSB) and a year later FSB deputy director and head of the economic security department. In January 2000 Ivanov was appointed deputy head of President Vladimir Putin's administration.
After the elections the Almaz board of directors considered current issues related to the enterprise's activities, the official said. In particular, the board approved the enterprise's budget for the first half of 2002 and analyzed current legal issues, which was necessary because the post of board chairman had been vacant since June 10 this year. The session did not consider any restructuring of the enterprise, the official stressed. Several long-term issues were put off to the next session which is to take place in two weeks.
Ivanov had earlier been elected to chair the board of directors in the Antei consortium.
Antei and research and production company Almaz are Russia's largest developers and manufacturers of air defense systems. In particular, Antei manufactures and exports mobile Tor-M1, S-300B, Antei- 2500 and other systems.
Almaz has been chosen by the Russian government to function as the basic organisation for development of a promising surface-to-air missile system for all armed services. The enterprise has designed several generations of surface-to-air missile systems and their modifications, including S-25, S-75, S-125, S-200, S-300PMU1 and S-300PMU2 Favorit that are the backbone of Russia's air defense. Almaz is currently developing and testing the promising S-400 Triumf system.
The two organizations are expected to be incorporated into an Air Defense Consortium, now at the formative stage.