Mikhail Kasyanov was born in Moscow region in December 1957. His father was a teacher of mathematics and his mother - an economist.

He graduated from the Moscow Motor Vehicle and Road Transport Institute (University) and was qualified as a civil engineer. Later he was also educated at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow where he studied world trade and finance, and at the Higher School of Foreign Languages. He speaks fluent English.

In 1978-1981 Mikhail Kasyanov worked as an engineer in the Project Design Institute of Industrial Transport where he was involved in the development of a number of road construction projects.

In 1982-1989 he worked as economist at the State Planning Committee and since that time started his professional career in the field of international economic relations. During that period Mikhail was promoted to the position of senior economist and chief economist. Then he was appointed (in 1990) as Head of Subdivision of industrialized countries and continued to serve in that capacity at the Ministry of Economics in 1991-1993.

Since his appointment in 1993 as Head of the Department of Foreign Credits and External Debt at the Russian Ministry of Finance Mikhail Kasyanov had been directly engaged in the development and implementation of Russia's external debt policy.

In 1995 Mikhail Kasyanov became Deputy Finance Minister, a position he held for four years. He served as Russia's chief negotiator on restructuring of Soviet era external debt and was responsible for the development and implementation of the public borrowing policy. During that period the Russian Federation at last finalized agreements with its official (18 foreign governments) and commercial (dozens of foreign banks and companies) creditors on comprehensive debt restructuring, and reestablished its position at the international capital markets by successfully issuing sovereign bonds for the first time since 1913.

In 1999 President Boris Yeltsin appointed Mikhail Kasyanov to the position of the Minister of Finance and incorporated him into the Security Council of Russia. The Russian Government then managed to design and implement a first non-deficit budget in the new Russian history. In January 2000 Kasyanov became First Deputy Prime Minister and also kept the position of the Minister of Finance.

After Vladimir Putin won the 2000 presidential election Mikhail Kasyanov became the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation on the 17th of May, 2000 following the overwhelmingly positive parliamentary vote. During its four-year term Kasyanov's Cabinet made serious breakthrough in launching and successfully advancing reforms in many areas of the Russian economy and social sphere - tax and budget reforms, liberalization of capital controls and external trade, customs reform, reorganization of national infrastructure (energy sector and railways), land reform (including legalization of land market), pension reform. During this period of time inflation had been reduced significantly and the economy had grown by almost one third.

In February 2004, two weeks prior to the next presidential elections, Kasyanov's Cabinet was dismissed by President Putin following growing political disagreements between Kasyanov and Putin on gas sector reform, Yukos affair and business suppression, relations with Ukraine and Belarus and other issues.

One year after his departure from the government Mikhail Kasyanov started to vocally criticize Russian authorities for their anti-democratic drift initiated by President Putin in the end of 2004 and declared his intention to form a new political party to fight for liberal and democratic values against growing authoritarian tide. In April - June 2006 the political Party - People's Democratic Union (PDU) was created, and Mikhail Kasyanov was elected its Political Leader. By 2007 PDU had established its branches in 75 regions of Russia with more than 56 000 party members. In 2006-2007 PDU led the dissenters' marches together with other opposition political groups.

Mikhail Kasyanov was nominated a candidate for presidential elections by PDU, and in December 2007 the Central Election Commission registered him preliminarily as presidential candidate. One month later Kasyanov was denied participation in the presidential elections of March 2008 on the political grounds.

The book "Without Putin", written by Mikhail Kasyanov together with journalist Yevgeny Kiselyov was a presented to the public on October 5, 2009. This book devoted mainly to contemporary political and economic history of Russia, immediately became a bestseller.

Mikhail Kasyanov continues to perform as opposition leader, and PDU together with few other political organizations continues to fight for liberal and democratic values and for the change of general political course of the Russian Federation.

Mikhail Kasyanov is married. His wife, Irina Kasyanova, is a qualified economist. They have two daughters and two grand-daughters.

Printer-friendly version