The career of a Russian politician is rarely boring. The head of Russia's federal tax service from May - and for six days in August deputy prime minister in charge of debt restructuring - Boris Fyodorov was sacked along with the rest of Sergei Kiriyenko's government in August. He has had two previous stints as finance minister under Victor Chernomyrdin both of which ended with his sacking. But he may well be a player in whatever government emerges from Russia's political crisis - in mid-September he was back as first deputy prime minister in the provisional government of Victor Chernomyrdin and was credited with authoring the Plan for Economic Dictatorship - which amounted to a call for inflation. Like many other Russian leaders he also plays in the financial markets. Along with US banker Charles Ryan, he founded the United Financial Group, one of Moscow's leading investment banks. He spoke to Ronan Lyons in late August.

A superpower falls apart
Looking for survivors

Can Russia meet the targets for tax collection laid out in the recent IMF bail-out package?

Obviously it will be harder now. The financial crisis has made our task a great deal more difficult. But we are confident that we can meet our end-of-year target. The crucial months will be August and September given the critical need to boost confidence in the economy.

Is the trend improving?

In June we collected more than in May, and in July more than in June. The prospects for August were good until the announcements of August 17. We basically have a floating exchange rate now and the restructuring of GKOs will hit banks hard. The package will alleviate the crisis but there will still be lots for you journalists to write about. I don't want to comment on the impact on Russia's credit rating. It was...