You Can't take It With You: Victor Chernomyrdin Dead at 72

"Chernomyrdin, a former Soviet minister of gas, is credited with building Gazprom into the world's largest gas company after the breakup of the Soviet Union."---(RFE/RL 11-5-10)

"While often seen as a dull, Soviet-style official, Chernomyrdin regularly aroused nationwide amusement with his blunt and grammatically muddled aphorisms ["chernomyrdinkami"].

His most famous, made about the financial reforms in the 1990s, was: "We wanted it to be better, but it turned out as usual" -- a phrase that has become part of Russian culture."---(RFE/RL 10-3-10)

(RFE/RL 10-3-10) reports:

Former Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin has died [on 11-3-10] after battling a long illness. He was 72.

Chernomyrdin will be remembered as the longest-serving prime minister in post-Soviet Russia, a seasoned politician who helped steer his country though some of its most troubled times following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The former mechanic will also go down in history for founding Russian energy giant Gazprom, now the world's largest gas company.

President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin expressed their condolences to his family and friends. The Kremlin gave no cause of death. [See full text or search Виктор Черномырдин.]