Mikhail Kovalchuk

He is a brother of Yury Kovalchuk, known as "Putin's personal banker".

Since May 26, 2000 Mikhail Kovalchuk has been a Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) in physics.

Since 2001 he has been the Scientific Secretary of the Council for Science and High Technologies attached to the President of the Russian Federation.

In June 2007 by a decision of the RAS Presidium Mikhail Kovalchuk was appointed acting vice-president of the Academy for nanotechnology.

Despite pressure from Vladimir Putin, the RAS rejected Kovalchuk's application for full membership in May 2008.