Anatoly Wasserman

Anatoly Aleksandrovich Wassermannotetag|Also transliterated Anatoly Alexandrovich Vasserman; , , Since September 2021 he is a member of the State Duma of the Russian Federation (the 8th convocation).

Biography Wasserman studied thermal physics at the Institute of refrigeration and cryotechnologies in Odessa, specializing also in computer programming. In 1974—1991 he was employed as a programmer at different R&D centers in Odessa dealing with low-temperature food technologies.

Wasserman has worked as a journalist since 23 November 1991 to the present (from 1996 to 1999, for computer magazines in particular).

In 1994, he ran for office as a Deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and took second place in his constituency.

On 27 January 2016, Wasserman became a naturalized Russian citizen (with citizenship granted by Vladimir Putin).

Wasserman advised Dmitry Medvedev not to experiment on Russians after Medvedev proposed beginning a gradual transition to a shorter working week, starting with an experiment on the territory of one region or on a group of companies. According to the publicist, without accurate economic calculations, this can result in a reduction in wages. Wasserman noted that "we do not need experiments, but concrete calculations". It is necessary to calculate whether the increase in labor productivity will compensate for the loss of one working day, because otherwise, the salary of citizens will fall, the journalist explained.

In 2021 Wasserman again ran for election to the State Duma, this time as an independent candidate. As in 2016, he ran in the Preobrazhensky constituency of Moscow; Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin publicly endorsed his candidacy. In addition, the ruling United Russia party also did not nominate a candidate in this constituency. Wasserman won the seat, defeating the CPRF candidate Sergei Obukhov.

Sanctions

Wasserman is sanctioned by the UK government on 11 March 2022 in relation to the Russo-Ukrainian War.