Alexander Pochinok

Alexander Pochinok (Алекса́ндр Почино́к; 12 January 1958 – 16 March 2014) was a Russian economist and politician. He was the minister of taxes and levies from 1999 to 2000 and minister of labor and social development from 2000 to 2004.

Early life and education
Pochinok was born in Chelyabinsk on 12 January 1958. He graduated from Chelyabinsk Lenin Komsomol Memorial Polytechnic Institute with a degree in engineering and economics in 1980. He received a PhD in economics from the Institute of Economy of the Russian Academy of Sciences of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union in 1986.

Career
From 1980 to 1990 Pochinok worked at the Soviet Academy of Sciences as a researcher. In 1990, he became a deputy at the Duma, representing Chelyabinsk. He was one of the earliest independent democrats elected to the Duma. He was made head of the Duma's budget committee. In September 1993, he resigned from the Duma. From 1993 to 1994 he served as deputy finance minister. In 1995, he was promoted to the academic rank of associate professor and in 1997, of professor of tax policy at the Plekhanov Russian University of Economics.

Pochinok was the head of the state tax service from 1998 to 1999, and Boris Fyodorov replaced him in the post. Then Pochinok served as the head of the department of finance and monetary credit regulation from 1998 to 1999. Pochinok was the minister of taxes and levies from 1999 to 2000. Gennady Bukayev replaced him in the post. In May 2000, President Vladimir Putin appointed Pochinok as minister of labor and social development to Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov's cabinet. Pochinok's term lasted until 2004 and Mikhail Zurabov succeeded him as minister of social development in March 2004. Then Pochinok served as deputy presidential plenipotentiary representative in the Southern Federal District. From 2007 to 2011 he represented Krasnodar Krai at the Federation Council.

In January 2012, Pochinok was appointed senator and became a member of the Federation Council. In October 2012 he became a functionary of the Civic Platform party organized by businessman Mikhail Prokhorov.

Views
Pochinok was one of the first liberal Russian economists. However, he later advocated Boris Yeltsin's economic approach in the mid-1990s.

Personal life and death
Pochinok married twice. His second spouse, Natalia Gribkova, was his student and Russia’s light athletics champion, who was 20 years younger than him. He had two sons and a daughter.

Pochinok died of hemorrhagic stroke at the age of 56 in March 2014.