Vladislav Surkov

Vladislav Yuryevich Surkov (́в Ю́рьевич Сурко́в, Dudaev Aslambek Andarbekovich; ) (born 21 September 1964) is a Russian businessman and politician. Currently he is a First Deputy Chief of Staff of the President of the Russian Federation, Kyiv Post (26 October 2009) and a top aide to Vladimir Putin. Vladislav Surkov is widely seen as the main ideologist of the Kremlin. Allegedly he contributed greatly to the electoral victory of Vladimir Putin in 2004.

Early years

He was born to Zinaida Antonovna Surkova, his mother (b. 1935), and his father Andarbek (Yuriy) Danil'bekovich Dudayev, both of whom were school teachers in Duba-yurt, Checheno-Ingush SSR, as Aslambek Dudayev. It is not until 1969 that his name was officially changed to Vladislav Surkov after moving with his mother to the Lipetsk region shortly after his family had been abandoned by his father.

Having completed his secondary school studies, Surkov entered Moscow Institute of Steel and Alloys in 1982, where he made a friend of Vladimir Solovyov, now a leading pro-government TV journalist, and Mikhail Fridman, now an oil tycoon, but failed to graduate as he had been conscripted into the military service, which around that time had become compulsory in USSR even for students. He served from 1983 – 1985 in a Soviet artillery regiment in Hungary, according to his official biography, or, as the former Russia's Defence Minister Sergey Ivanov...
Read More