MOSCOW, February 15 (RIA Novosti) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday he has appointed government Chief of Staff Sergei Naryshkin a deputy prime minister.
Putin said Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov believes it expedient to boost foreign economic activity and CIS activity.
"In this connection, Sergei Naryshkin will be charged with functions in this sphere," the Russian leader said.
Naryshkin was born in 1954 in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg).
In 1998 he was appointed the head of the Leningrad regional government committee on foreign economic and international ties.
In 2004, Naryshkin was appointed a deputy head of the Russian president's economic department, and later became a deputy head of the Russian government staff, then chief of staff.
