Boris Gryzlov

Infobox Politician
name=Boris Vyacheslavovich Gryzlov
nationality=Russian


caption=
office=Chairman of the State Duma
term_start=29 December, 2003
predecessor=Gennady Seleznyov
office2=Chairman of the Supreme Council
of United Russia
term_start2=27 November, 2004
office3=Chairman of the United Russia
term_start3=15 April, 2008
term_end3=7 May, 2008
successor3=Vladimir Putin
office4=Minister of Internal Affairs
term_start4=28 March 2001
term_end4=24 December 2003
predecessor4=Vladimir Rushaylo
successor4=Rashid Nurgaliyev
birth_date=Birth date and age|1950|12|15|mf=y
birth_place=Vladivostok, Soviet Union
death_date=
death_place=
party=United Russia
relations=
spouse=Ada Viktorovna Gryzlova
civil partner=
children=Dmitry (1979), Evgeniya (1980)
residence=
occupation=
religion=


website=
footnotes=

Boris Vyacheslavovich Gryzlov or Boris Grizlov (Russian: _ru. Борис Вячеславович Грызлов, IPA-ru|bɐˈrʲis grɨˈzlov) (born December 15 1950), is a Russian politician and current Speaker of the Russian lower house (the State Duma). He's one of the leaders of the largest Russian political party United Russia. Boris Gryzlov is a close ally of the Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

Early career

Gryzlov was born in Vladivostok and raised in Vladimir Putin's hometown of Saint Petersburg. He graduated from Leningrad Electrical Institute of Communications in 1973 and worked as a radio-engineer. He was not a public person before 1999. In December 1999, Boris Gryzlov was elected to the Russian Duma as a member of Sergei Shoigu's Unity party. In January 2000 he became a head of "Unity" deputy fraction in the Duma.

Interior minister

In March 2001 he was appointed to the post of chief Russian policeman and became Russia's Interior Minister. In this position Gryzlov proclaimed fight against terrorism and corruption his priorities. He is responsible for the notorious "werewolves in epaulets" (rus. [http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9E%D0%B1%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%BE%D1%82%D0%BD%D0%B8_%D0%B2_%D0%BF%D0%BE%D0%B3%D0%BE%D0%BD%D0%B0%D1%85 oborotni v pogonah] ) investigation against the corrupt police officers. The term "werewolves in epaulets" was coined by Gryzlov himself, and soon became a proverb and an ironical meme. Critics blamed Gryzlov in using this investigation to gain more popularity before 2003 parliamental elections.

He supported controversial Kremlin policies in Chechnya and won a reputation of trusted and loyal supporter of the Russian president.

In August 2001 Boris Gryzlov claimed that up to 100 industrial enterprises in Saint Petersburg, including the Petersburg Fuel Company, leading gasoline retailing operator in the city, as well as four main sea ports of Northwestern Russia, Saint Petersburg, Kaliningrad, Arkhangelsk and Murmansk, were controlled by the Tambov Gang. [http://www.jamestown.org/publications_details.php?volume_id=24&issue_id=2084&article_id=18648] , [http://www.jamestown.org/print_friendly.php?volume_id=24&issue_id=2082&article_id=18637] In May 2002 he sent a commission to St. Petersburg to investigate corruption allegations in the city's gasoline market. The investigation was initiated after the Faeton Gasoline Company, second leading fuel retailing company in the city, had complained to both Gryzlov and the Prosecutor General's Office in April that the Saint Petersburg City Administration had given preferences to the Petersburg Fuel Company. [http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=7254] However, this had no evident consequences.

Parliament speaker

Within a year he returned to party politics and in November 2002 became the head of the United Russia, a centrist pro-Putin group what emerged from Unity and several other pro-government movements that joined it. In December 2003 Boris Gryzlov was elected as speaker of the Russian Duma.

As the leader of United Russia, he was often accused by oppositional politics in government bureacracy and inefficacy and implicit supporting of every Putin's and government action. In 2007 his party made certain consessions to popular demands (e.g. attacking Mikhail Zurabov, who is one of the most unpopular ministers in Russia).

In 2007 Boris Gryzlov characterized his party as a Conservative party.

Memorable quotes

Once in 2005 Gryzlov said: "Parliament isn't a place for political discussions." [http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/postglobal/needtoknow/2006/08/gary_kasparov_on_putin.html] [http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1595828,00.html] . He was widely criticized and ridiculed by Russian liberals for this statement.

Following the 2007 Parliamentary elections, Gryzlov responded to criticism of electoral violations saying: "They in no way put in doubt the final result. The fact that these violations have been registered shows that we have a transparent ballot." [http://new.quote.com/news/story.action?id=RTT712022243000135]

References

External links

* [http://www.gryzlov.ru/ Official web site]