Yevgeny Nikolayevich Zinichev  was a Russian politician and military officer. He served as the Minister of Emergency Situations and was also the member of the Security Council of Russia.

In 2016, he served as the acting Governor of Kaliningrad Oblast before being replaced by Anton Alikhanov. He was ranked General of the Army as of 2020.

Biography

Yevgeny Zinichev was born in Leningrad on 18 August 1966.

From 1984 to 1986, after graduation from high school, he served on the call-up service in the Northern Fleet of the Soviet Navy.

Zinichev graduated from the St. Petersburg Institute of Business and Law, receiving diplomas on graduation from two faculties: economics and "finance and credit".

He was a KGB officer from 1987 until 1991, and a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

He worked at the Central Office of the Federal Security Service of Russia, going from operative officer to head of regional management.

Since 1991, he served in the Federal Security Service.

From 2006 until 2015, Zinichev worked in the personal security of the Presidential Security Service of the Russian Federation, accompanying the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin (from 2008-2012), on working trips. In the archival photographs ITAR-TASS, during this period, he was referred to as an "FSO officer" or "FSB officer", everywhere in the immediate vicinity of Putin.

From 2012 to 2013, he underwent a retraining course at the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.

In 2014, he has served as the Deputy Head of the Russian Federal Security Service.

In June 2015, Zinichev was appointed Chief of the Federal Security Service of Russia in Kaliningrad Oblast, replacing Alexander Kozlov in this post.

The official biography of Zinichev says that from 1987 to 2015, the official "served in various positions in state security agencies." Specific service locations are however not specified.

On 28 July 2016, within the framework of the largest staff rotation in 2016, President Putin appointed Zinichev as acting Governor of Kaliningrad Oblast. His predecessor, Nikolay Tsukanov was appointed Plenipotentiary of the President in the Northwest Federal District at that time.

During the first press conference, which lasted 49 seconds, the priority was to attract investment to the Kaliningrad Oblast and stabilize the socio-economic situation.

On October 6, 2016, he resigned from his post as governor of the Kaliningrad region at will, due to family circumstances. He worked 70 days in his post. His successor was Anton Alikhanov.

On 7 October 2016, Zinichev was appointed Deputy Director of the Federal Security Service. In the same month he was awarded the rank of Lieutenant General.

On 17 May 2018, Prime Minister Medvedev nominated Zinichev for the post of head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia instead of Vladimir Puchkov. Putin endorsed the election of the prime minister and approved a new cabinet with Zinichev as Minister of Emergency Situations.

To Putin's decree on 28 May 2018, Zinichev included in the Security Council of the Russian Federation.

In December 2018, Yevgeny Zinichev was promoted to the rank of Colonel-General in the post of Minister of Emergency Situations.

On 15 January 2020, he resigned as part of the cabinet, after President Vladimir Putin delivered the Presidential Address to the Federal Assembly, in which he proposed several amendments to the constitution. He was reinstated on 21 January 2020.

Zinichev died on 8 September 2021 in Norilsk, during the filming of an interdepartmental exercise to protect the Arctic zone of Russia. He fell off a cliff while trying to save the life of the slipped director and cameraman Alexander Melnik, who also died.

Personal life

Zinichev was married, and had a son, a grandson and two granddaughters.