[1][2] He was born in Tula, during the time period of the Soviet Union; and would go on to receive a Candidate of Science in Economics, considered a PhD equivalent, from Moscow State University in 1989.

[3] On 18 September 2016, he was elected as a deputy of the 7th State Duma as a member of the Communist Party.

[3] He is one of the 324 members of the State Duma that the United States Department of the Treasury sanctioned on 24 March 2022 in response to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

[4] He was invited to speak within Georgia's parliament through the Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy.

[5] This speech was given in Russian from the Speaker's chair and was seen as an attack on Georgian sovereignty.