Today Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoygu is marking his 60th birthday.
Shoygu was born in Chadan, Tuva. When he was 22, Shoygu graduated from the Krasnoyarsk Polytechnic Institute. Following graduation he worked on construction projects. In the late 80s he became a minor functionary in the Abakan branch of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and was then appointed Deputy Chief of the State Architecture and Construction Committee of the Russian Federation.
In 1991, he was appointed the head of Rescuer Corps, and renamed first to the State Committee on Emergencies, and eventually to the Ministry of Emergency Situations, making Shoygu a government minister. In 2012, he was announced as one of the potential candidates for the Governor of Moscow Oblast. Later in 2012 Shoygu was appointed Minister of Defense when Putin ousted his longtime ally, Anatoly Serdyukov.
Shoygu has a lot of orders and medals of the Russian Federation, including the Order of Merit for the Fatherland 2nd and 3rd classes, the title of the Hero of the Russian Federation. Sergei and Irina Shoygu have two daughters – Julia (1977) and Ksenia (1991).
The head of Ingushetia, Yunus-bek Yevkurov, sent his congratulations on this occasion. "Shoygu is a man of his word. If he promises something, he will do it. As a defense minister, Sergei Shoygu gave an order to increase the number of recruits from Ingushetia from two hundred to a thousand. This is important for the republic. In addition, Sergei Shoygu supported the inclusion of the Highland Ingushetia Cadet Corps in the military education system of the country," he said.
"And the main thing is that on becoming defense minister Sergei Shoygu gave a second breath to the Russian army," Rossiyskaya Gazeta cited the head of Ingushetia. He also added that "Shoygu is very quick in making decisions, but they are always very weighed. And Shoygu has amazing endurance," he added.
