KOZAK, Dmitry Nikolayevich
Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation

Dmitry Nikolayevich Kozak (Дмитрий Николаевич Козак) was appointed Regional Development Minister in September 2007, though he has long been considered a key member of Former President Vladimir Putin's inner circle. He was reappointed as Minister of Regional Development in May 2008. In October 2008, he became the eighth deputy prime minister of Prime Minister Putin's cabinet.

Early Life and Personal

Kozak was born November 7, 1958 in the Kirovograd region of Ukraine.  He graduated from the law department of Leningrad State University (now St. Petersburg State University) in 1985 and for the next four years he worked in the Leningrad prosecutor's office. In 1989, he entered the business world to work at Monolith-Kirovstroy and the Association of Trade Ports.

In 1990, he started his own private practice as he worked as a legal officer to the Leningrad City Council and another private company.

Kozak is married with two sons.

Political Career

Around 1994, he began working on the law committee of St. Petersburg's mayor, Anatoly Sobchak. He was instrumental in developing a new city charter for St. Petersburg. Also in this position he met Putin and they became close associates. In 1998, he served as deputy mayor of St. Petersburg.

In 1999, President Boris Yeltsin invited Kozak to Moscow, where he worked as Deputy Head of Legal Affairs in the presidential administration. When Putin was named prime minister in August 1999,, Kozak became the chief of staff for the government. In both 1999 and 2003, Kozak was the head of Putin's presidential campaigns.

From 2000 to 2004, Kozak served has the deputy head of Putin's presidential administration with a shifting set of responsibilities. He was assigned to several reform projects that reshaped Russia's legal system starting in January 2001. He was also seen as the architect of the centralization of power in the federal government with he appointment of regional governors and the establishment of a system of presidential envoys to districts.

In September 2004, Kozak was appointed presidential envoy to the troubled Southern Federal District where he was Putin's lead in reconstructing the war-torn region and quieting Chechnya's rebels.

In September 2007, after Putin replaced Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov with Viktor Zubkov, Kozak was appointed regional development minister.

In December 2007 Kozak was appointed deputy chairman to Sergei Prikhodko of the organizing committee for preparations of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.

On May 12, 2008 Kozak was reappointed as Minister of Regional Development under Vladimir Putin's second cabinet.

On October 14, 2008, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev announced a change of structure in government and introduction of a new post of a separate deputy prime minister, supervising the preparations for the Winter Olympic Games held in 2014 in a city of Sochi. On this day, Kozak was appointed to this new position. His previous role as Minister of Regional Development  was given to the assistant to the Plenipotentiary of the President in  the Ural Federal district, Viktor Fyodorovich Basargin. 

As Deputy Prime Minister, Kozak coordinates the work of the federal organs by giving their constituent commissions questions on the following areas:

- preparations for the 22nd Winter Olympic Games and the 11th Winter Paralympic Games 2014, in Sochi

- state policy in construction and architecture, and in housing and communal services

- state policy in socio-economic development of the federal subjects (regions) of the Russian Federation

- development of federal target programmes of regional development, implementation of measures directed at diminishing discrepancy amongst population in terms of socio-economic development in the regions, the creation and functioning of free economic zones, and the granting of state support at the expense of the Investment Fund of the Russian Federation

Sources

Dmitry Kozak Biography (In Russian), lenta.ru
Biographies of Cabinet Members (In Russian), newsru.com
RenCap Profile of Kozak, Renaissance Capital

Government.Ru, Profile of Dmitry Nikolayevich Kozak (in Russian) 

Last Updated December 10, 2008