 From 1994 to 1995 - President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Nizhny Novgorod region.From 1995 to 1998 - deputy State Duma of the second convocation, was a member of fraction Communist Party , a member of the Committee on Economic Policy, resigned as deputy in 1998 in connection with the transition to the government.In July 1997 he ran for gubernatorial elections in the Nizhny Novgorod region, but lost to the former mayor of Nizhny Novgorod Ivan Sklyarov.