Primakov's likely absence is cataclysmic. Some fear him. Few dispute he has the cold war in his veins. Close your eyes. Think of Albert Broccoli.
Nobody does it better.
He'd be a stupendous Bond villain. Jowly, Siberian fir-tree robust, outwardly taciturn, Primakov fits every stipulation for demonisation. His private charm, by all accounts, would fit him even more for any piranha-breeding role. Yet according to the British former foreign secretary, Malcolm Rifkind, the dour, expressionless exterior can lift swiftly to reveal a lightness of touch and a sense of humour that marks him out as no orthodox Soviet foreign operative. But those who know him say he is, though no sentimentalist, not a dangerous man.