Dmitry Romanov

Political Career
Born in Leningrad, USSR, after the collapse of the Soviet Union renamed St. Petersburg in 1978, Dmitry graduated from the State University of the Russian Federation in St. Petersburg in 1998, having been installed as Governor of St. Petersburg after the death of his father (this was the practise in Russia before the mafia-style political turmoil of the 90s ended in the early 2000s). Having been a honorary member of the Communist Party of the USSR(later Russian Federation) he ended his membership in 1999 when he was offered the post of Minister of Defence in the federal government. Sergey Ilyushin (President of Russia 1996-2004) saw his protégées potential and made him Chairman of the Government (Prime Minister) in December 1999.

In 2002 Dmitry also became the Speaker of the newly founded United Russia-party, that would turn out to be one of the corner stones in his coming authoritarian styled administration.

Largely due to the immense propaganda machine of the Kremlin Dmitry won the Presidential elections in 2004 with a landslide victory, gathering more than 75% of the votes. Though international observers condemned the elections as a big theatre claiming that more than 90% of the voted might have been tempered with, the Constitutional Court recognized Dmitry Romanov as the legal president and that, even though the elections might not have done according to "European standard", the result "reflects the will of the Russian people".

Personal Life
Romanov is open about his homosexuality and has made great efforts in Russia to eradicate the legacy of the criminalization code of the USSR and Russia (until 1999). Since 2002 Romanov lives openly with his partner, Jean-Philippe de Bourbon, a French fashion model.

Personal Wealth
In 2009 the Kremlin released, by popular demand, the tax records of the President where he declared assets of a total net worth of 15,7 trillion roubles (336,9 billion €), here included large ownership in Russian companies such as Gazprom and Aeroflot.