Anatoliy Serdyukov - Early Career

Early Career

Born at Krasnodar Krai on 8 January 1962, Serdyukov graduated from Leningrad Institute of Soviet Trade in 1984 with a degree in economics. From 1984 to 1985 he served in the Soviet Army. Since 1985 he had worked in a furniture shop and from 1995 to 2000 was the director general of Furniture Market, a furniture company in Saint Petersburg. Serdyukov's career started to develop very successfully after the election of Vladimir Putin as Russian President in 2000. In 2001 Serdyukov graduated from the Law Department of Saint Petersburg State University. From 2000 to 2001 he served as a Deputy Chief of the Saint Petersburg Directorate of the Tax Ministry of Russia, from 2001 to 2004 he led the Directorate, succeeding Viktor Zubkov, his father-in-law. On 2 March 2004, he was appointed Deputy Tax Minister of Russia.

From 2004 to 2007 he led the Tax Ministry of Russia (in July 2004 reorganized into the Federal Tax Service of Russia). During this period, the key officials of the service were replaced mainly by Serdyukov's colleagues from Saint Petersburg. He also often resorted to personnel rotation and appointment of former federal tax officials to the regional tax service departments in the federal subjects of Russia. During his leadership, court decisions in favor of the Federal Tax Service became much more common. While the service was formally subordinate to the Finance Ministry under Alexey Kudrin, in fact Serdyukov very much leaned towards Presidential Aide Viktor Ivanov.