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Boris Gryzlov

Boris Vyacheslavovich Gryzlov or Boris Grizlov (Russian: Борис Вячеславович Грызлов) (b. December 15, 1950—), is a Russian politician and a current Speaker of the Russian lower house known as the State Duma as well as a leader of the largest Russian political party United Russia. Boris Gryzlov is a close ally of the Russian president Vladimir Putin.

He graduated from Leningrad Electrical Institute of Communications in 1973 and worked as a radio-engineer. Gryzlov was born in Vladivostok and raised in Vladimir Putin's hometown of Saint Petersburg. He was not a public persone before 1999. In December 1999, Boris Gryzlov was elected to the Russian Duma as a member of Sergei Shoigu's Unity party. In January 2000 he became a head of "Unity" deputy fraction in the Duma.

In March of 2001 he was appointed to the post of chief Russian policeman and became Russia's Interior Minister. In this position Gryzlov proclaimed fight against terrorism and corruption his priorities. He has gained some popularity after the notorious "werewolves in epaulettes" (rus. oborotni v pogonah) investigation against the corrupt police officers. The term "werewolves in epaulettes" was invited by Gryzlov himself, and soon became a proverb and a target for jokes. His opponents say, Gryzlov's struggle against corruption was just a populist pre-election trick.

He supported controversial Kremlin policies in Chechnya and won a reputation of trusted and loyal supporter of the Russian president.

In August 2001 Boris Gryzlov claimed that up to 100 industrial enterprises in Saint Petersburg, including the Petersburg Fuel Company, leading gasoline retailing operator in the city, as well as four main sea ports of Northwestern Russia, Saint Petersburg, Kaliningrad, Arkhangelsk and Murmansk, were controlled by the Tambov Gang. [1], [2] In May 2002 he sent a commission to St. Petersburg to investigate corruption allegations in the city's gasoline market. The investigation was initiated after the Faeton Gasoline Company, second leading fuel retailing company in the city, had complained to both Gryzlov and the Prosecutor General's Office in April that the Saint Petersburg City Administration had given preferences to the Petersburg Fuel Company. [3] However, this had no evident consequences.

Within a year he returned to party politics and in November 2002 became the head of the United Russia, a centrist pro-Putin group what emerged from Unity and several other pro-government movements that joined it. In December 2003 Boris Gryzlov was elected as speaker of the Russian Duma.

As the leader of United Russia, he receieves the criticism aimed to the whole ruling party. His opponents blame him in government bureacracy and inefficacy and implict supporting of every Putin's and government action. In 2007 his party made certain consessions to popular demands (e.g. attacking Mikhail Zurabov, who is one of the most unpopular ministers in Russia).

In 2007 Boris Gryzlov characterized his party as a Conservative Party.

Once in 2005 Gryzlov said: Parliament isn't a place for political discussions. [4] [5]. He was widely criticized and ridiculed by Russian liberals for saying that.

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