Gleb Pavlovsky, a prominent Russian political scientist, strategist, and founder of the Fund for Effective Politics, has passed away at the age of 72. Reports from Vedomosti, citing a close associate, Simon Kordonsky, head of the local self-government department at the National Research University Higher School of Economics, confirmed the death.
“Yes, he is gone. It is night,” remarked political strategist Marat Gelman on social media to affirm the news.
According to a Telegr am channel report, Pavlovsky died after a severe and prolonged illness on February 26 at the First Moscow Hospice named after Vera Millionshchikova.
Relatives and friends expressed gratitude for the support endured over the months of illness and said they would share details about the farewell ceremony in due course.
Media coverage noted that over recent years Pavlovsky battled cancer, with a worsening condition reported in January.
“One of the few people I could talk to”
TV presenter and Rosneft spokesman Mikhail Leontiev told Gazeta.ru that their recent contact had been limited due to divergent political views. He recalled Pavlovsky as a formidable intellect who listened well and engaged thoughtfully, even when in disagreement.
Leontiev added that Pavlovsky did not let political ties override personal judgments and stayed self-critical throughout his career.
“He was among the few people from that political community you could converse with. Perhaps even the only one,” Leontiev observed.
On social media, journalist Ksenia Sobchak praised Pavlovsky’s talent for sensing current trends and articulating them with clarity, noting his capacity to capture the pulse of the times.
Sobchak reflected that Pavlovsky had long been shaping and understanding major historical epochs rather than merely reacting to them.
Dissident turned Kremlin strategist and opposition voice
Pavlovsky was born on March 5, 1951, in Odessa and graduated from the History Faculty there. In the mid-1970s, he came under KGB scrutiny for distributing Solzhenitsyn’s The Gulag Archipelago, relocated to Moscow, and took up manual labor to avoid charges of parasitism. He edited the samizdat magazine Poiski from 1978 to 1980 and faced arrest in 1982, followed by a three-year exile in Komi. He returned to Moscow in 1985.
He led the private news agency Postfactum from 1989 to 1993 and rose to vice chairman of the board at Kommersant in the early 1990s. In 1997, Pavlovsky and Marat Gelman founded the Russian Journal, one of the country’s longstanding social and political online publications, where he served as editor-in-chief. Collaborating with Anton Nosik, he helped launch Gazeta.ru, Lenta.ru, vesti.ru, and strana.ru. Between 2005 and 2008, he hosted the Real Politics program on NTV.
In 1995, Pavlovsky, Gelman, and Maxim Meyer launched the Fund for Effective Politics. He participated in Boris Yeltsin’s reelection campaign in 1996 and later contributed to Vladimir Putin’s 2000 campaign strategy. A 2018 profile noted that by the late 1990s Pavlovsky believed electoral outcomes could be engineered by a well-structured system, if not outright controlled.
He also participated in Viktor Yanukovich’s 2004 presidential campaign in Ukraine and later advised the Russian Presidential Administration. On April 24, 2008, Pavlovsky received the Second Order of Merit for the Fatherland from President Dmitry Medvedev.
The Fund for Influential Politics worked with the Russian presidential administration until 2011, during which Pavlovsky advised the head of the administration. Many outlets have described him as one of the builders of the modern political framework in Russia, particularly for co-authoring the concept of sovereign democracy.
In 2011, the administration ended the contract with the fund, and Pavlovsky left his adviser post. Accounts suggest the decision stemmed from disagreements aimed at modernization proposals, and that tensions related to the 2012 election influenced the move. That year, Pavlovsky publicly aligned with opposition movements and joined protests against perceived electoral irregularities.
Following Russia’s actions in Ukraine, Pavlovsky urged an end to hostilities and criticized referendums on territorial changes. Russian authorities later designated him as a participant in a recognized foreign agent program, reflecting ongoing debates about political advocacy and media influence in the country.