[1] Born at Krasnodar Krai on 8 January 1962, Serdyukov graduated from the Leningrad Institute of Soviet Trade [ru] in 1984 with a degree in economics.

Serdyukov's already successful career further developed in tandem with his father-in-law's, Viktor Zubkov, and after the election of Vladimir Putin as Russian President in 2000.

While the service was formally subordinate to the Finance Ministry under Alexey Kudrin, in fact Serdyukov very much leaned towards Presidential aide Viktor Ivanov.

[5] On 15 February 2007, President Vladimir Putin appointed Serdyukov as Minister of Defence, with the main task of fighting corruption and inefficiency in the Russian Armed Forces.

[citation needed] However, before Putin responded, Baluyevsky did publicly support the resignation of Serdyukov and stated sarcastically that "the next Defence Minister could be a woman".

[7] In office, Serdyukov chose not to get involved in the daily administration of troops and operational-strategic planning, leaving these matters to the professionals.

"[8] This reportedly enabled him to quickly "put the generals in their place," and "to instill a level of background fear that even the old-timers do not recall having seen before."

"[8] To deal with the budgetary issues, Serdyukov brought in his old colleagues from the Federal Tax Service and created a new department in the MoD for financial control.

[10] In 2010, Serdyukov launched a $430 billion military reform to be achieved over the next 15 years in order to fully re-equip Russian conventional forces.

[11] Serdyukov also launched plans to reduce personnel in the central administration by 30%, which would lead to the liquidation of a significant number of positions filled by generals and colonels.

Addressing acute and long-standing issues such as the ineffectiveness of Russia’s defense industrial and procurement policies was also one of Serdyukov's chief aims.

In 2001, Serdyukov, his wife Julia Zubkova, and Yevgeniya Vasilyeva all were classmates and graduated from Law School at Saint Petersburg State University (Russia).

Discovered and seized from the apartment were more than three million rubles, nearly $747,000 worth of diamonds, several dozen paintings, pearls, and other jewelry, amongst other things.

[14][15] On 6 November 2012 - twelve days after Serdyukov was discovered in Yevgeniya Vasilyeva's apartment - he was dismissed (fired) by Putin and was replaced by Sergei Shoigu.

[16][17] In November 2013, Serdyukov was charged by Russian investigators with "negligence" for ordering the army to build a road from a village to a private country residence in Russia's south.