Yegor Gaidar died

• 16.12.2009, 9:42

A former Prime Minister of Russia, an author of many economic reforms Yegor Gaidar died in Moscow. He was 53.

It has been informed by RIA Novosti with a reference to Gaidar’s aide Gennady Volkov.

“Yegor Timurovich died, I cannot reveal details still,” Volkov said.

According to preliminary reports, the cause of his death was a thrombus that had broken loose.

Yegor Gaidar was a political and state leader, Economy Doctor. He was a grandson of writers Arkady Gaidar and Pyotr Bazhov. In 1991 he was director of Economic Policy Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. In June-December 1992 he was the Acting Prime Minister of the Russian Federation; he started reforming the economy. He took part in the talks in Belavezhskaya Pushcha between Boris Yeltsin, Stanislau Shushkevich and Leonid Kravchuk, after which dissolution of the USSR took place.

Gaidar was one of the key participants of reforms which changed the economic system of Russia. In particular, under Gaidar’s command liberalization of retail prices took place and privatization started. Freedom of price formation triggered market mechanisms in Russian economy.

Since December 1992 Yegor Gaidar was Director of the Institute for the Economy in Transition. In September 1993 – January 1994 he was the First Vice-Premier of the Russian Government and Minister of Economics from 1991 until 1992. In 1993-1995 he was a deputy of the State Duma, Russia's Choice faction leader. Since June 1994 he headed the party The Democratic Choice of Russia.