Mikhail Mishustin

Mikhail Vladimirovich Mishustin (Михаил Владимирович Мишустин; born 3 March 1966) is a Russian politician and economist serving as the prime minister of Russia since 16 January 2020.

Mikhail Mishustin was born on 3 March 1966 in Lobnya, a town very close to Moscow, to the Mishustin family, Vladimir Moiseyevich and Luiza Mikhailovna.

His mother was born in the city of Kotlas in the Arkhangelsk region while Mishustin's father, a Jew from Belarus, was born in Polotsk.

Vladimir Moiseyevich Mishustin was a member of the Central Committee of the Komsomol.

In 1989, he graduated from the STANKIN, majoring in system engineering, and then in 1992, he completed postgraduate studies at the same institute.

After finishing graduate school, he began working as a director of a test laboratory facility.

In 1992, Mishustin began working at the International Computer Club (ICC), where he worked on facilitating the integration of Russian and Western information technologies.

He ultimately headed the board of the International Computer Club.

In 1998, he joined the state service as an assistant for information systems for accounting and control over the receipt of tax payments to the head of the State tax service of the Russian Federation.

From 1998 to 2004, he worked as Deputy tax minister, being second-in-command at the State Tax Service.

He worked as head of the Federal Agency for Real Estate Cadastre within the Russian Ministry of Economic Development, and head of the Federal Agency for Managing Special Economic Zones.

In 2008, Mishustin left the civil service and returned to the private sector.

He spent two years as the president of UFG Asset Management, an investment fund, before resigning to become head of the Federal Tax Service.

In February 2009, he joined the personnel reserve of the President of Russia.

He previously served as the director of the Federal Taxation Service from 2010 to 2020.

In 2010, Mishustin was appointed head of the Federal Tax Service (FTS) by then–Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

After his appointment to this post, entrepreneurs expressed the hope that Mishustin, as coming from business, would be more "friendly" to Russian entrepreneurs.

As head of the Federal Tax Service, Mishustin earned a reputation as a skilled technocrat and emphasized tax simplification and electronic tax services.

During this period, however, the tax service was criticized for its overly strict approach to business; Mishustin rejected this criticism, pointing to a decrease in the number of on-site tax audits and tax inspections of large and medium-sized businesses.

As head of the FTS, Mishustin declared war on "dirty data" and targeted problems with unjustified value-added tax (VAT) refunds.

Mishustin emphasized digitization and big data, making extensive use of "techno-authoritarian" systems of government surveillance of economic activity, including the collection of data on almost every transaction in Russia.

This data collection was facilitated by new legislation that required all business-to-business invoices to be submitted to the government and required all retailers to automatically transmit real-time transaction data to tax authorities through an "online cash register" process.

The government used artificial intelligence to identify persons suspected of tax evasion.

This system of surveillance resulted in a decrease in the share of VAT uncollected by Russian authorities during Mishustin's tenure; the "VAT gap" reportedly declined from 20% to less than 1%.

President Vladimir Putin nominated Mishustin to become prime minister on 15 January 2020, following the resignation of Dmitry Medvedev and the rest of the government to allow for sweeping constitutional changes.

Hearings on his appointment took place in the State Duma on 16 January, and he was confirmed in office that day.

He has the federal state civilian service rank of 1st class Active State Councillor of the Russian Federation.

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, along with his entire Cabinet, resigned on 15 January 2020, after President Vladimir Putin delivered the Presidential Address to the Federal Assembly, in which he proposed several amendments to the constitution.

Medvedev stated that he was resigning to allow Putin to make the significant constitutional changes suggested by Putin regarding shifting power away from the presidency.

Putin accepted the resignation.

However, on Putin's instructions, the Cabinet continued its work as a caretaker cabinet until the formation of a new government.

On 15 January 2020, Putin nominated Mishustin for the post of Prime Minister.

According to Putin, he was offered four candidates, but Mishustin was not among them.

As a result Putin independently decided to nominate Mishustin for the Prime Minister.

The next day he was confirmed by the State Duma to the post and appointed Prime Minister by Putin's decree.

This was the first time ever that a Prime Minister was confirmed without any votes against.

On 21 January 2020, Mishustin presented to President Vladimir Putin a draft structure of his Cabinet.

On the same day, the President signed a decree on the structure of the Cabinet and appointed the proposed Ministers.

The cabinet contained multiple members from Medvedev's Second Cabinet.

Only four Deputy Prime Ministers remained (three retaining their positions and one being appointed to another post), along with twelve Ministers.