Sergey Mironov
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Sergey Mironov (Russian: Сергей Миронов )(b. February 14, 1953 - ), is a Russian politician and a current Speaker of the Federation Council, the upper house of the Russian parliament. Sergey Mironov is from Saint Petersburg and is considered to be a close ally of the Russian president Vladimir Putin. In the 1970s Sergey Mironov served in airborne troops in the Soviet Army. Later he graduated from Leningrad Mining Institute worked as an engineer-geophysicist. After a brief time of working as an entrepreneur he entered politics and in 1994 was elected deputy of the St. Petersburg's Legislative Assembly. In June, 2000 he was elected vice-Chairman of St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly and in 2001 entered the Federation Council of Russia as a representative of the St. Petersburg. In December 2001 Sergey Mironov was elected to be a Speaker of the Federation Council. From February 2003 Sergey Mironov also has been the Chairman of the Council of Inter-Parliamentary Assembly of States – members of the Commonwealth of Independent States and from April 2003 - Chairman of the Russian Party of Life.
During the 2004 elections Sergey Mironov ran for the presidential office. He was not considered to be a serious candidate, and has been quoted as saying: "We all want Vladimir Putin to be the next president." His vote was also extremely low.
In October 2006 he became the leader of the new center-left opposition party Just Russia which was formed by uniting Rodina, Mironov's Russian Party of Life and Russian Pensioners' Party. This effectively makes him the leader of the opposition as the three parties together would be stronger than the Communist Party of the Russian Federation.
Sergey Mironov is married. He has a son and a daughter.
[edit] Controversies
In 2002 Mironov was on a visit to Israel. He visited Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon but declined the offer to visit Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian President. This was regarded as an insult to the Palestinian Authority by Russia and caused misunderstanding. Sergei Mironov later apologized stating he was misunderstood.
