Life and Career
Born in Sverdlovsk Oblast, Zubkov graduated from the Economic Department of the Leningrad Agriculture Institute in 1972.
In 1966 he was drafted to the Soviet Army for a 18-month term. From 1967 to 1985 he worked on leading positions in kolkhozes of Leningrad Oblast. In 1985 to 1991 he occupied several leading positions in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in Leningrad Oblast, in 1989 to 1991 a First Deputy Chairman of the Leningrad Oblast Executive Committee of the Party.
In January 1992 to November 1993 he was a deputy Chairman of the External Relations Committee of the Saint Petersburg Mayor Office led by Vladimir Putin.
From 3 November 1993, to 30 November 1998, Zubkov was the Chief of the Saint Petersburg Department of the State Tax Inspection and simultaneously a Deputy Chairman of the State Tax Inspection for Saint Petersburg.
In December 1998, during the term of Yevgeny Primakov's Cabinet the State Tax Inspection was reorganized into the Tax Ministry of Russia and Zubkov's deputy head position was abolished, but he was immediately reappointed Chief of the Saint Petersburg Directorate of the Tax Ministry. On 23 July 1999 Zubkov was appointed Deputy Tax Minister of Russia for the Northwestern region. In a few days he was also appointed Chief of the Saint Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast Directorate of the Tax Ministry.
On 12 August 1999 he was registered as a contender in the Leningrad Oblast governor election, assisted by Boris Gryzlov as his election campaign manager, but lost the election to Valeriy Serdyukov on 19 September 1999, with 8.64 percent of the vote (4th place out of 16).
On 5 November 2001 he left his positions in the Tax Ministry and was appointed First Deputy Finance Minister of Russia and Chairman of the Financial Monitoring Committee of the ministry, aimed to fight money laundering.
On 16 March 2004 after the dismissal of Mikhail Kasyanov's Cabinet, the Financial Monitoring Committee was renamed to Federal Financial Monitoring Service of the Finance Ministry, but Zubkov retained his position in Mikhail Fradkov's First Cabinet and Mikhail Fradkov's Second Cabinet.
In a 2006 survey of political experts, Zubkov was ranked as Russia's 84th most influential politician.
Zubkov's daughter is married to Anatoliy Serdyukov, the Russian Defense Minister.
Read more about this topic: Viktor Zubkov
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