Yevgeny Maksimovich Primakov was an economist, an expert on the East, and a brilliant analyst. He began his career as a correspondent for the newspaper “Pravda” in the Middle East, carried out extremely complex diplomatic missions during the sharpest conflicts, led the foreign intelligence service of the USSR, and was in demand for high government posts in crisis situations. He was Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation. I’ll remind you that he (together with Ruslan Aushev and Aslambek Aslahanov) led negotiations with the head of terrorists Arbi Barayev during the seizure of “Nord-Ost.”