Born on15 January 1961 at Ufimka station of Achitsky district in Sverdlovsk region. 1979-1981 he was in military service in the Armed Forces of USSR. In 1985, he graduated with honors from the judicial and prosecutorial faculty of the Sverdlovsk Law Institute named after R. A. Rudenko (SLI). After graduation, since 1985 and to 1987, he was working as a secretary of the Komsomol committee of SLI. Since 1988, he worked at the Department of Soviet State Law and Soviet Construction of SLI (now the Department of Constitutional Law of the Ural State Law University) as lecturer, senior lecturer, associate professor, and professor. His academic status is professor (since 1998). From 1998 to 2010 he was the head of the Constitutional Law chair of the Ural State Law Academy. In 2006 – 2009 he was the Editor-in-Chief of the Russian Law Journal. In 1988, he defended the candidate of sciences (PhD) thesis entitled «Local Public Organizations of Citizens as Subjects of Soviet State Law» and in 1995 he defended his Doctor’s thesis entitled «The Russian Nation and Russian Statehood (the Constitutional and Legal Aspect of Relationship)». He authored more than 300 scientific and educational publications. Lawyer Emeritus of the Russian Federation. He is awarded with the “Honorary Worker of Higher Professional Education of the Russian Federation” badge, and the Order of Friendship. On 3 March 2010, under the recommendation of the President of the Russian Federation D.A. Medvedev, he was appointed Judge of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation.