Gennady Yuryevich Semigin (; born March 23, 1964) is a Russian politician who formerly led the

nationalist Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation,Anthony D. Smith, Smith, A ...

political party

Patriots of Russia Patriots of Russia (, ) was a left-wing political party in Russia. It was established in April 2005 by Gennady Semigin, who was expelled from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation after he failed in a power struggle with Gennady Zyugan ...

party until it merged with A Just Russia — For Truth (SRZP) in 2021. Following the merger, Semigin was elected to the

State Duma The State Duma is the lower house of the Federal Assembly (Russia), Federal Assembly of Russia, with the upper house being the Federation Council (Russia), Federation Council. It was established by the Constitution of Russia, Constitution of t ...

as part of the SRZP party list.

Career

Born March 23, 1964, in Dunaevtsy,

Ukrainian SSR The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, abbreviated as the Ukrainian SSR, UkrSSR, and also known as Soviet Ukraine or just Ukraine, was one of the Republics of the Soviet Union, constituent republics of the Soviet Union from 1922 until 1991. ...

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, he studied in

Riga Riga ( ) is the capital, Primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Latvia, largest city of Latvia. Home to 591,882 inhabitants (as of 2025), the city accounts for a third of Latvia's total population. The population of Riga Planni ...

on the history faculty, and then in the Moscow Institute of Jurisprudence. In the 1990s he ran a successful business. He is also a member of the

Russian Academy of Science The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation; and additional scientific and social units such ...

. In 1999 and 2003 he was elected deputy of the

from the

Communist Party of the Russian Federation The Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF; ) is a communist political party in Russia that officially adheres to Marxist–Leninist philosophy. It is the second-largest political party in Russia after United Russia. The youth o ...

(CPRF). In the 2003 election he was the second ranked member on the CPRF list. The following year his ambitions of party leadership led him into conflict with the communist leader

Gennady Zyuganov Gennady Andreyevich Zyuganov (; born 26 June 1944) is a Russian politician who has been the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and served as Member of the State Duma since 1993. He is also the Chair of the Union ...

. Many old communists viewed rich Semigin as an opportunist, not a true member of the opposition. They labeled him a "

mole Mole (or Molé) may refer to: Animals * Mole (animal) or "true mole" * Golden mole, southern African mammals * Marsupial mole Marsupial moles, the Notoryctidae family, are two species of highly specialized marsupial mammals that are found i ...

" and the "''Red oligarch''". Despite this, Semigin was still elected chairman of the “

People's Patriotic Union of Russia People's, branded as ''People's ViennaLine'' until May 2018, and legally ''Altenrhein Luftfahrt GmbH'', is an Austro-Swiss airline headquartered in Vienna, Austria. It operates scheduled and charter passenger flights mainly from its base at St. ...

”, an umbrella organization that united the Communist party with minor opposition parties. Semigin made several attempts to seize power from Zyuganov, including organisation of separate CPRF congress. But

VTsIK The All-Russian Central Executive Committee () was (June – November 1917) a permanent body formed by the First All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies (held from June 16 to July 7, 1917 in Saint Petersburg, Petrograd), ...

didn't recognize Semigin's congress and pointed that only the official CPRF congress was legal. This congress voted to expel Semigin and his allies from the party. In the Duma, Semigin moved to the Rodina faction, and at the same time founded his own party ''

''. He also organized the "People's Government" – the group of leftists politicians including

Sergey Glazyev Sergey Yurievich Glazyev (; born January 1, 1961) is a Russian politician and economist, member of the National Financial Council of the Bank of Russia, and, since 2008, a full member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Glazyev was minister o ...

, Gennady Seleznyov and

Gennady Gudkov Gennady Vladimirovich Gudkov (; born 15 August 1956) is a Russian politician and businessman. ''The Moscow Times'' described him in 2012 as "one of parliament's most vocal and charismatic critics" of President Vladimir Putin. Background Gudkov ...

that pretended to be a "future government".

Sanctions

He was sanctioned by the UK government in 2022 in relation to the

Russo-Ukrainian War The Russo-Ukrainian War began in February 2014 and is ongoing. Following Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity, Russia Russian occupation of Crimea, occupied and Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, annexed Crimea from Ukraine. It then ...

. On 24 March 2022, the United States Treasury sanctioned him in response to the

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

Notes

External links

Gennady Semigin // Flb.ru
{{DEFAULTSORT:Semigin, Gennady 1961 births Living people People from Dunaivtsi Communist Party of the Soviet Union members Former members of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Patriots of Russia politicians Third convocation members of the State Duma (Russian Federation) Fourth convocation members of the State Duma (Russian Federation) Russian businesspeople Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation alumni Eighth convocation members of the State Duma (Russian Federation) Russian individuals subject to United Kingdom sanctions Kutafin Moscow State Law University alumni Russian individuals subject to U.S. Department of the Treasury sanctions