During his time as Ombudsman of the Russian Federation from 2004 to 2014, Vladimir Lukin invariably characterized the human rights situation in Russia as unsatisfactory while acknowledging that building a law-governed state and civil society in such a complex country as Russia would be a hard and long process. A former politician and diplomat, Lukin was replaced first by Ella Pamfilova and then in April 2016 by Tatyana Moskalkova, a lawyer and professor with the rank of Major-General in the Ministry of Internal Affairs.