Now in his 80's Zubkov is still the currentchairman of theboard of directors ofGazprom, Russia's largest corporation and one of the largest oil and natural gas companies in the world.
Born inSverdlovsk Oblast, Zubkov graduated from the Economic Department of theLeningrad Agriculture Institute in 1972.
In 1966, he was drafted to theSoviet Army for an 18-month term. From 1967 to 1985, he worked on leading positions inkolkhozes ofLeningrad Oblast. From 1985 to 1991, he occupied several leading positions in theCommunist Party of the Soviet Union in Leningrad Oblast: Chairman of thePriozersk City Executive Committee, First Secretary of the Priozersk City Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and head of the Department of Agriculture and Food Industry and the Agricultural Department of the Regional Committee of the CPSU. He was also First Deputy Chairman of the Leningrad Oblast Executive Committee from 1989 to 1991.
From January 1992 to November 1993, he was a deputy Chairman of the External Relations Committee of theSaint Petersburg Mayor Office led byVladimir 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 ofYevgeny 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 theLeningrad Oblast governor election, assisted byBoris Gryzlov as his election campaign manager, but lost the election toValeriy 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 DeputyFinance Minister of Russia and Chairman of the Financial Monitoring Committee of the ministry, aimed to fightmoney laundering.
SomeKremlinologists viewed Zubkov as one more technical prime minister, interpreting the move as a way to renew a competition between possible successors.[8]Another theory suggested that Putin chose a man of unquestioning loyalty to help him control powerful factions jostling for position inside the Kremlin. Another clue to his usefulness lies in Zubkov's experience under Putin as the man leading the fight againstfinancial crime.Putin said that there were five people who can run for president and can be elected, including Zubkov.[citation needed] On 13 September, Zubkov himself said he might run for President of Russia in 2008.[9] However, in December 2007, Putin officially gave his support toDmitry Medvedev for the2008 presidential election, effectively dashing Zubkov's hopes for the presidency. After Medvedev took office, Zubkov succeeded him as Chairman of Gazprom.[10]
.svg)
