Igor Sechin (Èãîðü Èâàíîâè÷ Ñå÷èí) was born on Sept. 7, 1960, in Leningrad.

Education: Romance languages (specializing in teaching Portuguese and French), Leningrad State University, 1984.

Mid-1980s: According to media reports, Sechin was recruited by the KGB almost immediately after graduation. The reports say Sechin worked as a translator in Mozambique for state-owned Tekhnoexport, which was responsible for arms supplies, before serving as a military translator in Angola (civil wars were then raging in both Mozambique and Angola). During this time, he allegedly met suspected arms dealer Viktor Bout and Deputy Prime Minster Sergei Ivanov.

Following his work in Africa, Sechin served in the armed forces for two years.

1988: Joined the Leningrad city executive committee, the Communist analogue of a city government. Met Vladimir Putin, then an aide to Anatoly Sobchak, during a delegation visit to Brazil. Putin became Sobchak's deputy and took Sechin under his wing.

1991: Appointed assistant to Vladimir Putin, the head of St. Petersburg's External Relations Committee. For the next five years, Sechin worked in various jobs within the St. Petersburg City Hall.

1996: Putin was appointed deputy head of the presidential property department and moved to Moscow. Sechin followed to serve as deputy head of the department's section for managing property abroad.

1997: Putin took the helm of the Kremlin's main control directorate, and Sechin became head of the directorate's general issues section.

1998: Sechin moved with Putin again, when his boss was named first deputy head of the presidential administration. Sechin oversaw staffing and general affairs for Putin.

1999: Putin appointed Sechin deputy head of the Kremlin secretariat, charging him with screening appointments and documents for signing. In this capacity, he served alongside Dmitry Medvedev. Three months later, Sechin was promoted to first deputy head of the Cabinet's general affairs department.

2000-2008: Kremlin deputy chief of staff. His duties included deciding with whom the president met and which documents he saw.

Sechin is considered a hard-liner and a leader of the siloviki, a clan of officials with security backgrounds who believe in the supremacy of the state. Sechin, Kremlin deputy chief of staff Viktor Ivanov and FSB economics department head Yury Zaostrovtsev were considered chief instigators of the government's campaign against oil giant Yukos in 2004.

2004-2011: Chairman of the board of directors of Rosneft. Sechin had no prior experience in energy prior to his appointment. Rosneft benefited heavily from the demise of Yukos, the oil giant formerly owned by jailed businessman Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Sechin resigned the chairmanship following President Dmitry Medvedev's plans to purge ministers from board chairmanships of state firms. As of July 2011, however, he remains chairman of the boards of state-run energy holding company Rosneftegaz, United Shipbuilding Corp. and state-run power utility Inter RAO (source 1, 2).

May 2008-present: First deputy prime minister in charge of industry (except the military-industrial complex), energy, environmental protection and natural resources.

Sechin is married and has a daughter, who is married to the son of a former justice minister and prosecutor general, Vladimir Ustinov. Ustinov led the first Yukos case.