Born on November 7, 1958 in the Kirovograd Region, Ukraine. 

Graduated from the Law Department of Leningrad State University.

1985-1989: worked in the Leningrad Prosecutor's Office as prosecutor and senior prosecutor. Headed the legal department of the Monolit-Kirovsky concern in St Petersburg (for two years).

1990-1994: Deputy Head of the Law Department, Head of the Legal Sector, Head of the Law Department of the St Petersburg City Council.

1994-1996: Chairman of the Law Committee of the St Petersburg City Hall.

1996-1998: Chairman of the Law Committee of the St Petersburg Mayor's Secretariat.

1998: Deputy Governor of St Petersburg, Chairman of the Law Committee of the St Petersburg Mayor's Secretariat.

1999: elected Chairman of the Board of Directors of the International Investment Financial Union.

August 1999: Chief of the Government Staff in the rank of Minister.

2000: Deputy Chief of the President's Executive Office, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Centre for Strategic Studies.

2003: First Deputy Chief of the President's Executive Office.

April 2004: Chief of the Government Staff.

September 2004: Presidential Plenipotentiary Envoy in the Southern Federal District.

September 2007: the Minister of Regional Development of the Russian Federation.

October 14, 2008: appointed Deputy Prime Minister of Russia.

May 21, 2012: Reappointed Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation by a presidential decree.

Married, with two sons.