Sergei Mironov

Sergei Mironov was born February 14, 1953 in Leningrad. A Russian politician, he is the chairman of the Federation Council and until mid April 2011 headed the Just Russia party.
In the early 1970s Mironov served in the Soviet airforce before going on to work as a geophysicist from 1978 to 1986.
Mironov completed his first degree at the Leningrad Mining Institute in 1980. He later completed further study at the St Petersburg State Technical University, the Academy of State Service of the Russian President and St Petersburg State University.
In 1993 he secured a license from the Russian Ministry of Finance of Russia to deal in securities. In the mid 1990s Mironov was executive director of the Renaissance of St. Petersburg construction firm.
Mironov entered politics in 1994 when he was elected deputy of the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly. He served various positions within the assembly before being elected a member of Russia's Federation Council in 2001, as a St. Petersburg representative. In the same year Mironov was elected speaker of the Federation Council, a post he continues to serve today. Since February 2002 Mironov has been a member of the Security Council.
Mironov ran for president in 2004, but managed to gain less than one percent of the vote. The seriousness of his attempt to win the contest was cast in doubt by his open support for then-President Vladimir Putin serving another term. Mironov has also backed changing the constitution to extend presidential terms of office.


The blow could relieve him of his position as the chairman of the Federation Council, a role which makes him the fourth most influential person in the Russian government. Despite citing official reasons behind the petition to have Mironov recalled from the Federation Council, however, United Russia’s motives are more political than procedural. Having already ceded his official position as party head, Mironov may now lose his most important position in Russian national politics.