Leonid Gozman

Leonid Gozman was born in 1950 in Leningrad

Leonid Gozman was born on 13 July 1950 in Leningrad to a Jewish family. He graduated from the Faculty of Psychology of Moscow State University in 1976 and began teaching there that year. He earned a PhD in 1983 and later headed the Political Psychology Laboratory.

In 1992 he became an advisor to Yegor Gaidar, and in 1993 he joined the Choice of Russia bloc. From 1996 he advised Anatoly Chubais and later sat on the board of the energy company RAO UES. In 1999 he became a deputy chief of staff of the Union of Right Forces.

In 2005 he became deputy chairman of the Union of Right Forces, and in September 2008 its acting leader. After the party was dissolved in November 2008, he became co-chair of the new Right Cause party. He stepped down as co-chair in 2011 and left the party that September.

He signed statements against Russian military action in Ukraine in 2014 and 2022. In 2022 he was designated a foreign agent, detained in Moscow, and jailed for 15 days over a Facebook post, after which he left Russia. In February 2024 a Moscow court ordered his arrest in absentia in a case over alleged false information about the Russian army.