Rashid Nurgaliyev (Ðàøèä Ãóìàðîâè÷ Íóðãàëèåâ) was born on Oct. 8, 1956, in Zhetikara, Kazakh S.S.R., into a military family. He is an ethnic Tartar.

Education: Physics and mathematics, Petrozavodsk State University, 1979. Ph.D., thesis: "Economic Aspects of Business Ventures in Modern Russia."

1979-1981: Taught physics in a school in the village of Nadvoitsa in the Karelian Autonomous S.S.R.

1981: Entered the KGB's Karelia directorate. Nurgaliyev served in the domestic security branches of the KGB and its successor, the FSB, for 17 years.

1992-1994: Served under Nikolai Patrushev, Karelia's security minister who later became head of the Federal Security Service and is currently Security Council secretary

1995: Moved to Moscow to become chief inspector of the Inspectorial Directorate of the FSK, later reorganized as the FSB

1998-1999: Worked in the presidential administration's audit department

July 2000: Deputy director of the FSB, head of the FSB's inspectorate

2002: Appointed first deputy interior minister by Vladimir Putin

March 9, 2004-present: Interior minister

Nurgaliyev has presided over reforms of the nation's police force aimed at rooting out corruption and police abuse. In December 2009, President Dmitry Medvedev ordered that the country’s police force be slashed by 20 percent by 2012 and that officers get pay raises (story). In April 2011, a month after the start of a much-trumpeted reform that included a name change from "militsia" to "politsia," Nurgaliyev said improvements were already tangible. However, a survey found that public attitudes toward the police remained overwhelmingly negative (story). By late May 2011, more than a third of the country's most powerful police chiefs had been fired after they failed mandatory re-evaluations as part the reforms (story).

Nugaliyev's tenure has also been marked by scandals involving members of the police force that have further eroded Russians' already low trust in the criminal justice system. The scandals include a December 2005 rampage in Blagoveshchensk, Bashkortostan in which hundreds of residents were arrested and beaten by local police and Interior Ministry special forces (story); the firing of Alexei Dymovsky, a police major who publicly complained of corruption in the police force (story); and police Major Denis Yevsyukov's fall 2009 shooting spree in a Moscow supermarket that killed three (story). The ministry was also criticized for what was perceived as a cover-up of a car accident involving a vehicle owned by LUKoil vice president Anatoly Barkov in which two were killed (story).

Nurgaliyev is married and has two children.