Dmitry Rogozin

Dmitry Rogozin
Deputy Prime Minister of Russia
Assumed office
2011
Personal details
Born Dmitryi Olegovich Rogozin
(1963-12-21) 21 December 1963
Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Nationality Russian
Spouse(s) Tatiana Gennadievna Rogozina
Children Alexey (1983)
Religion Russian Orthodox
Website http://www.rogozin.ru/

Dmitryi Olegovich Rogozin (Russian: Дми́трий Оле́гович Рого́зин; born 21 December 1963) is a Russian politician who has been Deputy Prime Minister of Russia, in charge of defense industry, since 2011.

In January 2008, he became Russia's ambassador to NATO,[1] serving until December 2011. He was a leader of the Rodina (Motherland) party, until it merged with other similar Russian parties to form the Fair Russia party.[2] He holds a doctor's degree and speaks four languages.

On 18 February 2011, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev appointed Rogozin as Special Representative on anti-missile defense and negotiations with NATO countries on this issue.

On 23 December 2011, Rogozin was appointed as Deputy Prime Minister, in charge of defense and space industry. As responsible for the defense industry, he leads the creation of the Russian Foundation for Advanced Research Projects in the Defense Industry.

Rogozin is the head of Russia’s Arctic Commission.[3]

Early life and education

He was born in Moscow to a family of a Soviet military scientist. He graduated from Moscow State University in 1986, with a degree in journalism, and in 1988, he graduated with another degree in economics. In 1996, he also got a PhD in philosophy.

Career

In 1993, Rogozin joined the recently created party "Congress of Russian Communities" led by General Alexander Lebed and, after its founder died in a 2002 helicopter crash, Rogozin became joint leader with Sergey Glazyev of what became the Rodina party, which was described by Novaya Gazeta liberal journalist Anna Politkovskaya as 'created by the Kremlin's spin doctors specifically... to draw moderately nationalist voters away from the more extreme National Bolsheviks'.[4] Rogozin was elected to the State Duma as a deputy from Voronezh in 1997, and he became a vocal activist for protection of rights of ethnic Russians in former the Soviet republics.

Rogozin was re-elected to the State Duma in 1999 and then appointed the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, drawing a lot of media attention and a share of criticism for some of his flamboyant public remarks. In 2002, he was appointed a Special Representative of the Russian president to deal with Kaliningrad problems that arose by the Baltic states joining the European Union. Rogozin received an official letter of gratitude from Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In 2003, Rogozin became one of the leaders of the Rodina (Motherland) "national-patriotic" coalition, which won 9.2% of the popular vote or 37 of the 450 seats in the Duma in 2003 parliamentary election, briefly propelling him to the post of the Duma's vice-speaker, from which he was dismissed a year and a half later as a result of some elaborate interfaction dealings. He remained an ordinary member of the Duma until the following election, in 2007.

After the breakthrough in 2003 elections, Rogozin became involved in power struggle with Rodina's other co-chairman Glazyev, who had socialist views. Glazyev nominated himself as the party's candidate in the 2004 presidential election, but Rogozin called on his party comrades to support incumbent Putin. Rogozin soon ousted Glazyev, to become the party's sole leader.

Rogozin, Russian PM Dmitry Medvedev and Ukrainian PM Mykola Azarov, June 27, 2012

Under Rogozin, Rodina shifted towards the right wing of Russian politics and became the second largest and one of the country's most successful parties. A number of controversies on Rogozin's policies culminated in it being banned in 2005 from standing for election to the Moscow City Duma for using what was considered as chauvinist slogan 'Let's clean the Garbage!'.[5] Many analysts believe it was made illegally to prevent Rogozin becoming a candidate at Russian presidential elections in 2008.

Rogozin's right views were not shared by all his party's members. In early 2006, at Rodina's congress, Rogozin resigned as party leader. Rogozin left Rodina after its merger with the Russian Party of Life and the Pensioners' Party into Fair Russia. In November 2006, he was the Chairman of the revived Congress of Russian Communities. In April 2007, he announced that he may support the formation of the Great Russia Party, in conjunction with the Movement Against Illegal Immigration. The party said that it may consider supporting the candidacy of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko for the Presidency of Russia in 2008, a move that was unconstitutional because Lukashenko is not a Russian citizen. Because Russian authorities had not registered Great Russia, the party could not contest the legislative election in 2007.

Rogozin with Indian PM Narendra Modi, in New Delhi, 5 November 2014

In 2008, he was appointed a Russian ambassador to NATO. As Russia's NATO envoy, he was heavily opposed to Ukraine and Georgia becoming members of NATO. After the two countries were denied membership of the NATO Membership Action Plan, he claimed, "They will not invite these bankrupt scandalous regimes to join NATO... more so as important partnerships with Russia are at stake".[6] For such words, he was criticized by some Ukrainian and Georgian officials. A former Ukrainian envoy to NATO, Ihor Sahach, said, "In my opinion, he is merely used as one of cogs in the informational war waged against Ukraine. Sooner or later, I think, it should be stopped". The envoy also expressed a surprise with Rogozin's slang words: "It was for the first time that I heard such a higher official as envoy using this, I don't even know how to describe it, whether it was a slang or language of criminal circles…. I understand Russian, but, I'm sorry, I don't know what his words meant".[7] The Foreign Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Ohryzko stated that he did not regard the statement as serious.[7]

On March 17, 2014, the next day after the Crimean status referendum, Rogozin became one of the first seven persons who were put by President Obama under executive sanctions. The sanctions froze his assets in the US and banned him from entering the country.[8] He was also added to the Canadian and to the EU sanction list due to the Crimean crisis. Rogozin has stated that Russia's defence sector has "many other ways of travelling the world besides tourist visas" and "tanks don't need visas".[9]

On May 10, 2014, Rogozin started a diplomatic conflict between Romania and Russia after Romania barred his plane from entering its airspace. In response, he made two threatening posts on his Twitter account, one of which stated that next time, he would fly on board a Tu-160 bomber.[10]

In October 2014, Rogozin wrote a foreword for a book, Alaska Betrayed and Sold: The History of a Palace Conspiracy, by Ivan Mironov. In it Rogozin supported the author's claim that the sale of Alaska was a "betrayal of Russian power status". He also claimed in his writing that Russia had the "right to reclaim our lost colonies". Rogozin's opinion on Alaska came out right around the time that the state was preparing to observe the anniversary of the sale.[11]

References

  1. ↑ "Putin appoints 'nationalist' Rogozin as Russia's NATO envoy". RIA Novosti. 1 October 2008. Archived from the original on 14 March 2008. Retrieved 25 September 2008.
  2. ↑ "Rogozin, Dmitry Olegovich". Russia Profile. 4 January 2008. Archived from the original on 24 September 2008. Retrieved 25 September 2008.
  3. ↑ Obama using Alaska to add urgency to his climate change warnings The Washington Post 31 August 2015. Retrieved 1 September 2015.
  4. ↑ Anna Politkovskaya (2007). "The Death of Russian Parliamentary Democracy". A Russian Diary. Random House. Archived from the original on 2 August 2009.
  5. ↑ Dmitry Babich (15 November 2005). "The Upheaval in France – an Inspiration for Russian Xenophobes?". Archived from the original on 5 May 2005.
  6. ↑ "NATO puts Russia ties ahead of Georgia, Ukraine – Russian envoy". UNIAN. 12 March 2008. Archived from the original on 5 December 2008.
  7. 1 2 "Ukraine's envoy to NATO proposes Russian counterpart to focus on his problems". UNIAN. 12 March 2008. Archived from the original on 5 December 2008.
  8. ↑ Logiurato, Brett (17 March 2014). "Obama Just Announced Sanctions Against 7 Russian 'Cronies'". Business Insider. Archived from the original on 17 March 2014. Retrieved 17 March 2014.
  9. ↑ "'Tanks don't need visas,' Putin aide tells west". Times of India. Agence France-Presse. 26 May 2015. Archived from the original on 26 May 2015.
  10. ↑ Illie, Luiza (10 May 2014). "Romania queries Moscow after deputy PM sends bomber jet tweets". Reuters.
  11. ↑ Harley Balzer, (14 October 2014 Is Alaska Next on Russia's List? The Moscow Times.
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