Igor Zubov

Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Russian Federation

The curator of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali Region at the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russian Federation is State Secretary – Deputy Minister Igor Zubov. The field of Zubov’s responsibility includes deepening relations with the de facto law enforcement structures of the occupied regions. He played an important role in creating the joint information-coordination centers of the Ministries of Internal Affairs in Sokhumi and Tskhinvali.

General Biographical Data 

• Igor Zubov was born on July 22, 1956 in Moscow, RSFSR, USSR.
• In 1977, he graduated from the Ministry of Internal Affairs of USSR’s Omsk Police Higher School, specialty of jurisprudence with honors.
• He is a Doctor of Judicial Sciences. The topic of his dissertation was “State-Legalistic and Organizational Problems of Functioning and Development of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia”.
• On October 7, 2013, he was granted the title of the Real State Advisor of the First Class of Russian Federation, at the order of the President.
• Over his lengthy career, he has received numerous awards. He is a Honorary Employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, as well as the member of the Russian Journalists’ Union.
• He has published over a hundred papers on the operative-search and administrative activities of the internal affairs structures and other topics.
• Zubov’s name is connected to several scandalous stories. Namely, according to Zubov’s statement, his family became a victim of fraud, when in 2010, his son’s family was forcibly evicted from their home in a prestigious suburb of Moscow and was left without a flat and the collection of antiquities kept there. Criminal proceedings were commenced on this case in 2010 and according to the assessment of the opposing side, the law enforcement structures only seemed to have pretenses against them when Zubov came back to the Ministry in 2012. According to another story, the name of Zubov’s son, Denis, featured in the list of owners of one of the offshore companies. Denis owned am offshore company from February 2001 to June 2004, when he was only 22 and his father had not yet left the Ministry.

Professional Career

• Zubov has an extensive experience of working for the law enforcement structures. He worked on various positions at the Ministry of Internal Affairs from 1973 to 2001.
• In 1997-1998, he was the Senior Deputy of the General Staff of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
• In 1998-1999, he was the Head of the General Organization-Inspection Division of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
• In 1999-2001, he was a Deputy to the Minister of Internal Affairs, Vladimir Rushailo. In this period of time, he curated the issues of Chechnya and actively participated in the combat action on-going in Chechnya and Dagestan. In March 2001, he left the Ministry with the title of General-Colonel at his own volition.
• From November 2001 to July 2003, Zubov was first President of the “Region” Scientific-Technical Development JSC at the largest financial-industrial corporation Sistema and then became the Vice-President of the whole corporation, where he curated HR issues and regional development.
• In 2003, he unsuccessfully participated in the gubernatorial race of Tver Oblast and received only 33.85% of the votes in second round of voting. Before the elections, unidentified persons shot up Zubov house, yet nobody was hurt. According to some assessments, this incident was ordered by his opponents; however, according to others, it was a show put on for the pre-election campaign.
• In 2004-2005, he headed the Inter-Regional Fund of the Presidential Programs, established by the government of Moscow.
• From 2007 to 2011, he was the MP of the Tver Oblast Fourth Parliament.
• From 2011, he used to teach at the University of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Moscow and was a professor at the Department of Constitutional and Municipal Law.
• From 2012, he returned to the Ministry, when on June 16 he was appointed as State Secretary – Deputy to Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev.

Relations with Abkhazia

• On June 23, 2014, Zubov held a working meeting in Moscow with the de facto Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Abkhazia, Raul Lolua. The issues of legal-consulting support to Abkhazia, cross border cooperation and cadre training was discussed at the meeting.
• On May 18, 2017, in Sochi, Zubov and the de facto Minister of Internal Affairs of Abkhazia, Aslan Kobakhia, signed the Agreement on the Formation of Joint Infromation-Coordination Center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Structures. This Agreement is a part of the Agreement on Alliance and Strategic Partnership, which was signed by the President of Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin and the de facto President of Abkhazia, Raul Khajimba, on November 24, 2014. After the signing ceremony, Zubov stated that the document has been agreed “fully and on all levels”. According to him “the agreement is very important as it lays the groundwork for full cooperation in these fields, including between the law enforcement structures of Russia and Abkhazia and enables international [police] cooperation”. Kobakhia made an interesting statement at this event:  “I can openly state that I am probably the first politician who says that since 2009, the whole [Abkhazian] law enforcement segment has been funded from the Russian budget.” Kobakhia said that the Abkhazian structures fully funded from the Russian budget include the Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Security Service. Then, he specified that Russia annually pays approximately RUB 1.2 billion (USD 21 million) to cover the costs of Abkhazian law enforcement structures. Opposition forces in Abkhazia sharply criticized this Agreement.
• On August 17, 2017, the delegation of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, headed by Zubov, visited Sokhumi. The delegation was hosted by the de facto Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Internal Affairs of Abkhazia, Aslan Kobakhia. The parties discusses the issues relating to the implementation of the May 18, 2017, Agreement on the Formation of Joint Infromation-Coordination Center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Structures, which, on the first stage, required the resolution of organizational-household issues (major rehabilitation and reconstruction of the building designated for the Center, provision of necessary technologies, HR issues). The candidacies for the Head of the Center were also discussed during the meeting. On the basis of mutual agreement, the candidate proposed by the de facto Ministry of Internal Affairs of Abkhazia, Beslan Farulua, was selected for the position. The parties also discussed the priority tasks of the November 24, 2014 Agreement on Alliance and Strategic Cooperation, including the material-technical provision of the de facto Ministry of Internal Affairs of Abkhazia, salaries and social guarantees of the Ministry’s employees.
• On October 23, 2020, an agreement was signed  in Moscow between the de facto Republic of Abkhazia and the Russian Federation on "co-financing the costs of a phased increase in the material and technical support of the internal affairs bodies of the [de facto] Republic of Abkhazia, monetary allowances and social guarantees for employees of the Internal Affairs Department of the [de facto] Republic of Abkhazia.” The agreement was signed by the de facto Minister of Internal Affairs of Abkhazia, Dmitry Dbar, and Zubov.
• On July 5, 2023, in Moscow, de facto Minister of Internal Affairs, Robert Kyut, met Zubov. The meeting discussed the issues of implementation of the cooperation program in 2021-2023, the construction of a building for the Joint Information and Coordination Center of the Ministries of Internal Affairs in Sokhumi, countermeasures against crime and illicit drug trafficking in the border areas, and the safety of Russian tourists during the holiday season.

Relations with Tskhinvali Region

• On April 18, 2014, Zubov paid a working visit to Tskhinvali, where he met the de facto President, Leonid Tibilov. The prospects of the reform and increasing the effectiveness of the de facto Ministry were discussed during the meeting. According to Zubov’s statement, the talks concerned the optimization of the functions of the de facto Ministry and increasing the salaries of the employees, primarily at the expense of internal reserves. Zubov also talked about the weapons possessed by the population. According to him, they know that the population has a lot of weapons; however, there needs to be certain order to this, which is why some sort of census of weapons is necessary.
• On April 10, 2015 visit to Tskhinvali, Zubov met with the de facto President of Tskhinvali Region, Leonid Tibilov and the representatives of the de facto Ministry of Internal Affairs. The issues of formulating other, additional documents in terms of the so-called Agreement on Alliance, were discussed during the meeting.
• On June 26, 2017, during his meeting with the de facto President of Tskhinvali Region, Zubov stated that “the creation of an Information-Coordination Center in Tskhinvali is a done deal”. The Agreement on the creation of the Center was signed on July 4, 2016. According to Zubov, “there is funding for opening the Center, which must be used up until the end of 2017, being spent on the major rehabilitation of the building and equipping it with modern technologies”. According to Zubov’s statement “the Center is a legally independent structure, practically an international organization and its leader will have a wide range of powers.” Zubov said that “since the first Head of the Center will be from Tskhinvali Region, it will be much easier for him to resolve the initial tasks”. Other issues were also discussed during the meeting, including the creation of a high-tech criminalistics laboratory and the opportunities of studying at the education institutions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia.
• On February 19, 2018, Zubov met with the de facto Leader of Tskhinvali Region, Anatoly Bibilov, in Moscow. The realization of the Alliance and Integration Agreement signed in March 2015 and other issues of bilateral cooperation were discussed during the meeting. The parties also exchanged their views on the situation in terms of combatting crime in border regions of Russia and Tskhinvali Region.
• On November 9, 2018, Zubov met the de facto Minister of Internal Affairs of Tskhinvali Region, Igor Naniev, at the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia in Moscow. The parties discussed the issues of strengthening bilateral cooperation. Apart from this, Zubov and Naniev signed a protocol on certain changes to the Agreement on Alliance and Integration between Russia and Tskhinvali Region.
• On April 30, 2020, in Moscow, de facto ambassador of the Tskhinvali Region to Russia Znaur Gasiev and Zubov signed additional protocol to the bilateral agreement signed on November 14, 2017. The agreement envisages co-financing costs for material and technical support, monetary compensation and gradual increase of social guarantees for the representatives of the Tskhinvali Region law enforcement agencies. The protocol expired on December 31, 2019. The signing of the new protocol was delayed due to the new Coronavirus spread threat.
• On June 16, 2022, while his visit in Moscow, Alan Gagloyev, the de facto president of the Tskhinvali region, met with Zubov. The meeting discussed the issues of the implementation of the March 18, 2015 Alliance and Integration Agreement as well as various aspects of increasing the efficiency of the work of the Joint Information-Coordination Center of the Internal Affairs agencies, training of staff and activities in the field of law enforcement.
• On April 7, 2023, Zubov congratulated Alan Guchmazov on his appointment as the de facto Minister of Internal Affairs. Guchmazov was appointed on April 5.