Dmitry Sergeyevich Kuzmin

Who is Dmitry Sergeyevich Kuzmin?

Dmitry Kuzmin is the incumbent mayor of the Southern Russian city of Stavropol. A candidate in the 2007 legislative elections representing the "[A] Just Russia" party, he was barred from taking part in the contest by a court decision in November. Kuzmin won the last mayoral election after defeating the candidate representing the national establishment party, United Russia, by a significant margin.

Born in 1966, Kuzmin took advantage of opportunities that emerged during the last years of the Soviet Union to become one of the youngest industrial directors of the time in the country. Evidently, a known figure in the city, Kuzmin won the popular mayoral election of 2003. His name attracted significant national attention in early 2007, when he succeeded in retaining his mayoral seat, in an electoral atmosphere considered rather inhospitable to his efforts. Although he represented a party friendly toward the ruling elite, a significant mayoral victory for a new party in contest with the major 'party of power' was seen as a salient element of what increasingly came to be seen, as [at least the English-language] media often portrayed it, a vote on the country's tightening political course.