| Sergei Stepashin | |
| Nationality: | Russian |
| Office: | 2nd Chairman of the Accounts Chamber |
| Term Start: | 19 April 2000 |
| Term End: | 20 September 2013 |
| Predecessor: | Khachim Karmokov |
| Successor: | Tatyana Golikova |
| Office1: | Member of the State Duma |
| Term Start1: | 18 January 2000 |
| Term End1: | 26 April 2000[1] |
| Office2: | Prime Minister of Russia |
| Term Start2: | 12 May 1999 |
| Term End2: | 9 August 1999 |
| Predecessor2: | Yevgeny Primakov |
| Successor2: | Vladimir Putin |
| Office3: | First Deputy Prime Minister of Russia |
| Term Start3: | 27 April 1999 |
| Term End3: | 19 May 1999 |
| Predecessor3: | Vadim Gustov |
| Successor3: | Nikolai Aksyonenko |
| Primeminister3: | Yevgeny Primakov Acting PM himself |
| Office4: | Minister of Internal Affairs |
| Primeminister4: | Sergey Kiriyenko Yevgeny Primakov |
| Term Start4: | 30 March 1998 |
| Term End4: | 12 May 1999 |
| Predecessor4: | Anatoly Kulikov |
| Successor4: | Vladimir Rushaylo |
| Office5: | Minister of Justice |
| Primeminister5: | Viktor Chernomyrdin |
| Term Start5: | 2 July 1997 |
| Term End5: | 30 March 1998 |
| Predecessor5: | Valentin Kovalev |
| Successor5: | Pavel Krasheninnikov |
| Office6: | Director of the Federal Security Service |
| President6: | Boris Yeltsin |
| Term Start6: | 2 March 1994 |
| Term End6: | 30 June 1995 |
| Predecessor6: | Nikolai Golushko |
| Successor6: | Mikhail Barsukov |
| Birth Name: | Sergei Vadimovich Stepashin |
| Birth Date: | 2 March 1952 |
| Birth Place: | Port-Arthur, Kvantun Oblast, Russian SFSR, USSR (now Lüshunkou, China) |
| Spouse: | Tamara Stepashina |
| Children: | Vladimir |
| President2: | Boris Yeltsin |
| Alma Mater: | Lenin Political-Military Academy, Finance Academy |
| Awards: | Order of Courage |
Sergei Vadimovich Stepashin (Russian: Сергей Вадимович Степашин; born 2 March 1952) is a Russian politician who briefly served as Prime Minister of Russia in 1999. Prior to this he had been appointed as federal security minister for counterintelligence by President Boris Yeltsin in 1994, a position from which he resigned in 1995 as a consequence of the Budyonnovsk hospital hostage crisis. Subsequent to his tenure as Prime Minister he served as Chairman of the Accounts Chamber of Russia from 2000 until 2013.
Stepashin was born in Port-Arthur, Kvantun Oblast, USSR (now Lüshunkou, China) on 2 March 1952. He graduated from the Higher Political School of the USSR Ministry of the Interior (1973), in 1981 from the Lenin Military-Political Academy, and in 2002 from the Finance Academy. He is a Doctor of Law, Professor, and has a rank of the State Advisor on Justice of the Russian Federation. His military rank is colonel general.[2]
Stepashin served as the Head of the FSK (the predecessor of the FSB) from February 1994 until June 1995. He then became justice minister, serving from 1997 to March 1998, and interior minister, holding that office from March 1998 to May 1999, when he was appointed and confirmed by parliament as prime minister. Yeltsin made it fairly clear when he appointed him Prime Minister that Stepashin would only hold the position temporarily, and he was replaced in August 1999 by future president Vladimir Putin.
Stepashin's attitude towards the Chechen conflict was markedly different from that of Vladimir Putin. Stepashin had, for example, presented leaders of the separatist regime in Chechnya with monogrammed pistols, praised the activities of the religious extremists who had taken over several Dagestani villages, and had proclaimed publicly: "We can afford to lose Dagestan!".[3]
After having been fired from the position of Prime Minister, Stepashin joined the political party Yabloko for the Russian parliamentary elections of 1999 and was elected to the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament. Later on he resigned his parliamentary seat and became head of the Account Chamber of the Russian Federation, the federal audit agency. He held this job until 2013.
Since 2007, Stepashin is the head of the revived Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society.[4]
On 27 March 2024, Stepashin met with the Vietnamese Ambassador to Russia.[5]