Dmitry Rogozin
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Dmitry Olegovich Rogozin or Dmitri Rogozin (Russian: Дмитрий Олегович Рогозин) is a Russian politician. He was a leader of the Russian Rodina (Motherland) fraction in the State Duma and is among the most outspoken Russian nationalists (although recently his party is moving in the direction of left-wing populism).
Dmitry Rogozin was born into the family of a famous Soviet military historian. He graduated from Moscow State University in 1986 with a degree in journalism and in 1988 graduated with another degree in economics.(In 1996 he also got a PhD in philosophy.) In 1993 Dmitry Rogozin joined the recently created party "Congress of the Russian Communities" led by general Alexander Lebed and soon became leader of the party.
Rogozin was elected to the State Duma as a deputy from Voronezh city in 1997 and was most vocal speaking out about the fate of ethnic Russians in former Soviet Union republics.
In 2003 Dmitry Rogozin became one of the leaders of the Rodina (Motherland) "national-patriotic" coalition, which won 9.2 % of the popular vote or 37 of the 450 seats in the Duma in 2003 parliamentary election.
In early 2006, under heavy pressure from the Kremlin, Rogozin stepped down as the leader of his Rodina electoral bloc. This is believed to be because of his party's rising popularity, and its increasing challenge to United Russia. Rogozin left Rodina following its merger with the Russian Party of Life and the Pensioners' Party into Fair Russia. As of November 2006 he has been the Chairman of the revived Congress of Russian Communities, an organisation he intends to turn into a political party to contest the 2007 Duma elections.
