After graduating, he moved up through the ranks of the Leningrad Optics and Mechanics Association (LOMO) in Saint Petersburg, leaving in 1997 after spending seven years as its director.

On 14 August 2000, as vice-premier, President Vladimir Putin put him in charge of the Kursk rescue operation following its disastrous sinking.

[2] On 29 or 20 August, he announced that the likely cause of the sinking was a "strong 'dynamic external impact' corresponding with 'first event'", probably a collision with a foreign submarine or a large surface ship, or striking a World War II mine.

[8] The same year, he became the head of the board of the petroleum product carriers Sovkomflot, which owns the world's largest fleet of the ice class oil tankers and gas haulers.

[9] In 2013, Klebanov established a FOR Group (Russian: Группа ФОР) holding company to consolidate the assets owned by his family members.