Dmitry Rogozin

Dmitry Olegovich Rogozin (Дми́трий Оле́гович Рого́зин; born 21 December 1963) is a Russian politician serving as the senator from Zaporozhye Oblast since 23 September 2023.

He graduated from Moscow State University in 1986 with a degree in journalism, and in 1988 he graduated from the University of Marxism–Leninism under the Moscow City Committee of the CPSU with a degree in economics.

His thesis on "Philosophy and Theory of Wars" earned him a Doctor of Philosophy while a Doctor of Technical Sciences was awarded him in the specialty "weapons theory, military-technical policy, weapons systems".

Both were earned while he was professionally engaged in politics.

In 1992, Rogozin fought in the Transnistria War against the Moldovan forces as a soldier of a volunteer detachment.

In Transnistira, he became acquainted with the general Alexander Lebed.

He is a vocal supporter of Transnistria's independence from Moldova.

In 1993, Rogozin joined the recently created party Congress of Russian Communities led by General Alexander Lebed and, after its founder died in a 2002 helicopter crash, Rogozin became joint leader with Sergey Glazyev of what became the Rodina party, which was described by Novaya Gazeta liberal journalist Anna Politkovskaya as "created by the Kremlin's spin doctors specifically ... to draw moderately nationalist voters away from the more extreme National Bolsheviks".

Rogozin was elected to the State Duma as a deputy from Voronezh Oblast in 1997, and he became a vocal activist for protection of rights of ethnic Russians in the former Soviet republics.

Rogozin was re-elected to the State Duma in 1999 and then appointed the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, drawing a lot of media attention and a share of criticism for some of his flamboyant public remarks.

In 2002, he was appointed a Special Representative of the Russian President to deal with Kaliningrad problems that arose by the Baltic states joining the European Union.

Rogozin received an official letter of gratitude from Russian President Vladimir Putin.

He was co-founder of the far-right Rodina political party, which was created in 2003.

In 2003, 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 the 2003 parliamentary election, briefly propelling him to the post of the Duma's vice-speaker, from which he was dismissed a year and a half later as a result of some elaborate interfaction dealings.

After the breakthrough in the 2003 elections, Rogozin became involved in a power struggle with Rodina's other co-chairman, Glazyev, who had socialist views.

Glazyev nominated himself as the party's candidate in the 2004 presidential election, but Rogozin called on his party comrades to support incumbent Putin.

Rogozin soon ousted Glazyev, to become the party's sole leader.

Under Rogozin, Rodina shifted towards the right wing of Russian politics and became the second largest and one of the country's most successful parties.

A number of controversies on Rogozin's policies culminated in it being banned in 2005 from standing for election to the Moscow City Duma for using what was considered a chauvinist slogan "Let's Clean the Garbage!".

Parts of the party later merged with other parties to form A Just Russia in 2006.

Rogozin was born in Moscow to the family of a Soviet military scientist.

In early 2006, at Rodina's congress, Rogozin resigned as party leader.

Rogozin left Rodina after its merger with the Russian Party of Life and the Pensioners' Party into Fair Russia.

In November 2006, he was the Chairman of the revived Congress of Russian Communities.

He remained an ordinary member of the Duma until the following election, in 2007.

In April 2007, he announced that he might support the formation of the Great Russia Party, in conjunction with the Movement Against Illegal Immigration.

Because Russian authorities had not registered Great Russia, the party could not contest the legislative election in 2007.

Many analysts believe it was made illegally to prevent Rogozin becoming a candidate at the Russian presidential elections in 2008.

Rogozin's right-wing views were not shared by all his party's members.

The party said that it might consider supporting the candidacy of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko for the Presidency of Russia in 2008, a move that was unconstitutional because Lukashenko is not a Russian citizen.

In 2008, Rogozin was appointed by the Medvedev–Putin duumvirate as the Russian ambassador to NATO.

As Russia's NATO envoy, he was heavily opposed to Ukraine and Georgia becoming members of NATO.

After the two countries were denied membership of the NATO Membership Action Plan, he claimed, "They will not invite these bankrupt scandalous regimes to join NATO ... more so as important partnerships with Russia are at stake".

For such words, he was criticized by some Ukrainian and Georgian officials.

A former Ukrainian envoy to NATO, Ihor Sahach, said, "In my opinion, he is merely used as one of cogs in the informational war waged against Ukraine. Sooner or later, I think, it should be stopped".

The envoy also expressed surprise at Rogozin's slang words: "It was for the first time that I heard such a higher official as envoy using this, I don't even know how to describe it, whether it was a slang or language of criminal circles ... I understand Russian, but, I'm sorry, I don't know what his words meant".

The Foreign Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Ohryzko stated that he did not regard the statement as serious.

On 18 February 2011, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev appointed Rogozin as the Special Representative on anti-missile defense; he negotiated with NATO countries on this issue.

On 23 December 2011, Rogozin was appointed as Putin's Deputy Prime Minister in charge of the defense and space industries.

He previously served as director general of Roscosmos from 2018 to July 2022, as deputy prime minister in charge of the defense industry from 2011 to 2018, and as Russia's ambassador to NATO from 2008 to 2011.