Topic: Alexei Kudrin

Alexei Leonidovich Kudrin (Russian: Алексей Леонидович Кудрин) (born 12 October 1960) is the Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister of Russia. After graduating with degrees in finance and economics, Kudrin worked in the administration of Saint Petersburg's liberal Mayor Anatoly Sobchak. In 1996 he started working in the Presidential Administration of Boris Yeltsin. He was appointed Finance Minister on 28 May 2000, and has held the post ever since, making him the longest-serving Finance Minister in post-Soviet Russia. In addition, he has been Deputy Prime Minister in 2000-2004 and again since 2007. As Finance Minister, Kudrin is widely credited with prudent fiscal management, commitment to tax and budget reform and championing the free market. Under Kudrin, Russia paid most of the substantial foreign debt it had accumulated in the 1990s. During his career, Kudrin has won several awards, including the "Finance Minister of the Year 2010" prize from Euromoney magazine.

Alexei Kudrin was born on 12 October 1960 in Dobele, Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic. His first job was a motor mechanic and training assistant at the engine laboratory of the Academy of Procurement and Transportation of the Defense Ministry of the Soviet Union, before entering Leningrad State University to study economy. He graduated with a candidate's degree in 1983, and got an internship at the Leningrad Institute of Social and Economic Problems. In December 1985, he entered the internal postgraduate school at the Institute of Economics of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union, where he later received his PhD. He then worked as a researcher at the Institute of Social and Economic Problems of the Academy of Sciences. Kudrin has authored over 15 scientific works in the fields economics and finance, including topics such as competition and anti-monopoly policy in the Soviet economy of the transition period.

From 1990 to 1996, Kudrin worked in the Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg City Administration under the liberal mayor and reformer Anatoly Sobchak. His first position was Vice Chairman of the Committee for Economic Reform. Until 1993, he worked in various financial positions in the city administration, before he was promoted to Deputy Mayor, in which position he served from 1993 to 1996. Future President Vladimir Putin was the other top Deputy Mayor of Saint Petersburg at the time. Kudrin was also Chairman of the City Administration’s Economic and Finance Committee.