Sergei Sobyanin (Сергей Семенович Собянин) was born on July 21, 1958, in the village of Nyaksimvol in the Tyumen region.

Education: Kostromsky Institute of Technology, 1980. Law, All-Union Institute of Law, 1989. Dissertation: "Legal Standing of the Autonomous Regions as Federal Subjects of the Russian Federation."

1975: Moved to Chelyabinsk

1980: Worked at a tube and pipe mill in Chelyabinsk and led the mill's Komsomol organization

1982-1984: Worked for the Komsomol in Chelyabinsk

1984-1988: Sent by the Komsomol to the city of Kogalym in Tyumen region's Khanty-Mansiisk district. Kogalym was one of the main centers of the Soviet oil industry. Sobyanin worked in housing services and utilities. He also served as deputy chairman of the city council and later as secretary of the city's executive community.

1988-1990: Deputy director of the organizing committee of the Khanty-Mansiisk district Communist Party branch

1990-1991: Head of the state tax inspectorate in Kogalym

1991-1993: Mayor of Kogalym

1993: First deputy of the head of the administration of Khanty-Mansiisk autonomous region

1994-2000: Speaker, Khanty-Mansiisk district legislature

1996-2000: Federation Council senator. From 1998 to 2000, he was chairman of the Committee for Constitutional Legislation, Courts and Law.

2000: First deputy of Pyotr Latyshev, the president's representative to the Urals Federal District.

2001-2005: Governor of the Tyumen region, elected with 52 percent of the vote. Tyumen’s business environment thrived under Sobyanin and continued to do so after his departure, with Tyumen ranked as one of the country’s 10 most business-friendly cities by Forbes in 2009.

2001: First governor to join the ruling United Russia party after its establishment. He has been a member of United Russia's supreme council since 2001.

2005-2008: Chief of staff to President Putin, replacing Dmitry Medvedev

2007: Headed Dmitry Medvedev's presidential campaign

2008-2010: Deputy prime minister, chief of staff to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin

2009-present: Chairman of the board of Channel One television

Oct. 21, 2010: Appointed mayor of Moscow by President Medvedev, replacing Yury Luzhkov

Sobyanin has ties to some of the country’s top oil businessmen, including Vladimir Bogdanov, the billionaire head of Surgutneftegaz and a close ally of Putin. Bogdanov, whose operations are based in Surgut, is believed to have advised Sobyanin during his gubernatorial campaign.

When he is not working, Sobyanin has his favorite pastimes — in particular, hunting, a hobby that he mentioned in an interview in which he also criticized trophy hunters who chase captive or semi-captive animals bred in hunting facilities (story).

He is married and has two children.