According to his official biography, Vladislav Surkov (Âëàäèñëàâ Þðüåâè÷ Ñóðêîâ) was born on Sept. 21, 1964, in the village of Solntsevo, Lipetsk region, to a family of teachers. By other sources, he was born Aslambek Dudayev in 1962 in the village of Duba-Yurt in the Chechen-Ingush autonomous republic (source). Many details in Surkov's biography are similarly shady.

Education: M.A. economics, International University (official biography). According to unofficial sources, Surkov was at different points enrolled in the Moscow Institute of Steel and Alloys — where he met future Alfa Bank head Mikhail Fridman — and the Moscow Institute of Culture, where he studied theater directing (source). He did not graduate from either institute.

1983–1985: Served in a Soviet artillery unit in Hungary

1991–1996: Held senior positions in advertising and public relations at the Menatep Credit and Financial Enterprises Association, later called Menatep Bank. Menatep was established by now-jailed Yukos shareholders Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev. Surkov's professional links to Khodorkovsky go back to at least 1987 (source).

1996–1997: Deputy head, then head of public relations at Rosprom

1997: Became first deputy director of Mikhail Fridman's Alfa Bank

1998–1999: First deputy general director, director for public relations at ORT, which was then controlled by oligarch Boris Berezovsky

1999: Aide to Kremlin chief of staff Alexander Voloshin

August 1999-present: Deputy chief of staff of the Presidential Executive Office

2004-2008: Deputy chief of staff of the Presidential Executive Office and aide to the president

May 12, 2008-December 27, 2011: First deputy chief of staff of the Presidential Executive Office

December 27, 2011-present: Deputy prime minister; reappointed to Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev's Cabinet in May 2012. Areas of responsibility include the mass media, statistics, and interaction with the court system and prosecution agencies. Also serves as the government's chief of staff.

Surkov is widely seen as the Kremlin's main propagandist and ideologist as well as the mastermind behind the concept of "sovereign democracy" and pro-Kremlin youth groups such as Nashi.

Surkov is married and has three children.