Vyacheslav Volodin

Volodin was first elected to the State Duma in 2003 as a member of the United Russia party. He served as a deputy and later as Vice Speaker before moving to the presidential administration.

Volodin was appointed First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Administration in December 2011. He was responsible for domestic policy and political strategy, playing a key role in managing elections and party politics.

As First Deputy Chief of Staff, Volodin was involved in the passage of the 'foreign agents' law in 2012, which required NGOs receiving foreign funding to register as foreign agents. This law was criticized for restricting civil society.

Vyacheslav Volodin was appointed Speaker of the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, in October 2016. He succeeded Sergey Naryshkin and has since overseen the legislative agenda in support of President Vladimir Putin.