Nikolay Kovalyov (politician)

Nikolai Dmitrievich Kovalyov (Николай Дмитриевич Ковалёв) (born August 6, 1949) is a Russian politician (United Russia) and member of the State Duma, where he chairs the Duma's Veterans' Committee. Kovalyov was the Director of the FSB from July 1996 to July 1998, when he was succeeded by Vladimir Putin.

Nikolay Kovalyov joined the KGB in 1974. He was appointed General of the Army in 1997. In 1999 he was elected a deputy to the State Duma of the Russian Federation.

He said in 1996: "There has never been such a number of spies arrested by us since the time when German agents were sent in during the years of World War II." He also publicly speculated that Boris Berezovsky might be involved in the death of Alexander Litvinenko.

During the Bronze Soldier Controversy in 2007, Kovalyov led a "fact finding mission" to Estonia, where the authorities were relocating a World War II memorial, including a two meter tall bronze soldier in a Soviet uniform. Before leaving Moscow, Kovalyov asked Estonia's government to step down. The two-day visit by the Russian fact finding delegatíon, originally set up to defuse a diplomatic dispute over the Bronze Soldier statue, only appeared to have escalated the feud, with the Estonian foreign minister and other Government officials refusing to meet with Kovalyov's delegation.

Honours and awards

 * Order of Merit for the Fatherland;
 * 3rd (20 April 2006) - for outstanding contribution to law-making and long-term diligent work
 * 4th class
 * Order of Military Merit
 * Order of the Red Star
 * Medal "For merits in perpetuating the memory of the fallen defenders of the Fatherland" (Russian Ministry of Defence, 2008) - for his great personal contribution to the commemoration of the fallen defenders of the Fatherland, the establishment of names of the dead and the fate of missing servicemen, displaying high moral and business qualities, diligence and intelligent initiative, to assist in the task of perpetuating the memory of the fallen defenders of the Fatherland
 * Diploma of the Russian Federation President (9 January 2010) - for services in legislative activities and the development of Russian parliamentarism