19 Facts About Sergey Naryshkin

Sergey Yevgenyevich Naryshkin is a Russian politician and businessman who has served as the director of the Foreign Intelligence Service since 2016.

Sergey Naryshkin has the federal state civilian service rank of 1st class Active State Councillor of the Russian Federation.

Sergei Yevgenyevich Naryshkin was born in Leningrad and graduated from Leningrad Institute of Mechanics with a degree in engineering in 1978, and, in 1978, he was the first secretary of its Komsomol which was the Communist Party's youth wing.

From 1978, Sergey Naryshkin studied at the Moscow Higher School of the KGB for two years in the French section while Nikolay Tokarev studied at the Higher School of the KGB at the same time.

In 1982, Sergey Naryshkin was appointed Deputy Vice-Rector of the Leningrad Polytechnical Institute.

From 1988 to 1992, he worked in the Soviet Embassy in Brussels as an expert in the State Committee on Science and Technologies in the office of the economic adviser, but Alexei Pastyukhov, a childhood friend, stated that Sergey Naryshkin worked as third secretary.

From 1997 until 1998, Sergey Naryshkin led the Investment Department of the Leningrad Oblast government.

From March through September 2004, Sergey Naryshkin was a deputy chief of staff of the Russian government.

Since 31 August 2004, Sergey Naryshkin has been Chairman of the Board of Directors of Channel One of the Russian television.

On 15 February 2007, President Vladimir Putin announced that Sergey Naryshkin had been appointed Deputy Prime Minister of Russia for external economic activity, focusing on collaboration with the Commonwealth of Independent States.

In May 2008, Sergey Naryshkin was appointed chief of the Presidential Administration of Russia.

Sergey Naryshkin was elected to the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament in December 2011.

In June 2012, Sergey Naryshkin signed a resolution on setting up a culture council under the State Duma speaker.

On 2 September 2013, Sergey Naryshkin stated that there are no political prisoners in today's Russia.

Since the rise of tensions between European Union and Russia in 2014, Sergey Naryshkin was perceived as one of the main coordinators of contacts with European far-right and far-left parties supporting Russian foreign policy in Europe.

In September 2016, Sergey Naryshkin was appointed as chief of Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service.

In November 2021, Sergey Naryshkin dismissed reports of a possible invasion of Ukraine asserting that it was "malicious propaganda by the US State Department".

Days before Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Sergey Naryshkin received widespread attention in the global press for visibly trembling and "stutter[ing] uncomfortably" as Putin humiliated him publicly for "fumbling" his response to the Russian President's questioning during a Security Council of Russia meeting concerning the abandonment of the Minsk agreements and recognizing the Russian-backed separatist regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.

Sergey Naryshkin is the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration.