Mikhail Zurabov

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Mikhail Yuryevich Zurabov (Russian: Михаил Юрьевич Зурабов) is a Russian politician and the current Minister of Health and Social Development for President Vladimir Putin's government. He was nominated to the post by the Prime Minister, Mikhail Fradkov, and has held it since 9 March 2004.

Zurabov was born on 3 October 1953. He completed his undergraduate degree at the Moscow Institute of Management, and his masters degree at the All Union Scientific Research Institute. He held the position of Chair of the Russian Pension Fund Administration from 1999 to 2004.

Zurabov is seen as the third of the "Liberal Reformers" in Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov's. German Gref, Alexei Kudrin are the other two.

In early 2005, Zurabov, Gref, and Kudrin all came under fire for reforms to benefits for the elderly that they suggested and the State Duma had approved in 2004. Many of the reforms had to do with replacing free benefits, such as medical care and transportation, with cash benefits. This replacement angered many of the elderly because transportation costs are increasing. Protests took place all over Russia, but neither the presidential administration nor the State Duma responded to these protests in any substantial way. The President reprimanded Kudrin on national television, and a few members of the State Duma went on a hunger strike for a short period of time. A no-confidence vote against Fradkov's cabinet was called by the State Duma in early February, but it failed. Some analysts saw the whole affair as an attempt to either discredit or perhaps get rid of one of the three men by other members of the cabinet.

For a while it was believed that Zurabov, specifically, was being set up to take the fall for the failure of the Pension Reform that President Putin's government instituted in early 2005. However, Zurabov retained his post, and continues to serve as the Minister of Health and Social Development.