Laurentiy Iosifovich Verizov

The Honourable Laurentiy Iosifovich Verizov Лаврентий Иосифович Веризов MP
Deputy Chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee
Incumbent
Assumed office 11 May 2019
Preceded by	Alexander Kovalevsky
Shadow Minister for the Far Eastern Federal District
Incumbent
Assumed office 18 May 2015
Preceded by	Eva Koltsova
Member of the Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committee
In office 11 August 2012 – 5 January 2018
Preceded by	Eleonora Voronina
Succeeded by	Ippolit Koltsov
Spokesperson for the Ministry of the Interior
In office 26 November 2010 – 3 June 2014
Deputy of the Zemsky Sobor
Incumbent
Assumed office 13 May 2010
Personal details
Born	Laurentiy Iosifovich Verizov Лаврентий Иосифович Веризов Lavrentiy Iosifovich Verizov 22 June 1979 (age 44) Zolodolina, Zolodolina Zone, Seredinia
Nationality	Seredinian
Political party	Kadets
Spouse	Lucya Obolenskaya (m. 2007)
Relations	Laurentiy Verizov (great-grandfather)
Children	Alexander Nikolay Anastasia Alena
Alma mater	State University of Zolodolina (B.A. Politics, Philosophy, and Economics)
Profession	Politician

Laurentiy Iosifovich Verizov (Seredyan: Лаврентий Иосифович Веризов, tr. Lavrentiy Iosifovich Verizov; b. 22 June 1979) is a Seredinian politician and the great-grandson of former Seredinian President Laurentiy Petrovich Verizov. He is currently the Deputy Chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee as well as Shadow Minister for the Far Eastern Federal District in Innokentiy Isyanov's shadow cabinet. He has previously been a member of the Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committee, and was Spokesperson for the Ministry of the Interior while the Kadets were in government from 2010 until 2014. Ideologically, Verizov is considered a centrist, maintaining liberal economic as well as social positions.

The great-grandson of Laurentiy Petrovich, Laurentiy Iosifovich was born in the Seredinian capital of Zolodolina to Iosif and his wife, Polina Nikitovna Verizova neé Stepanova, on 22 June 1979. His father, Iosif Mikhailovich, is the third child of the late Mikhail Laurentiovich, himself the eldest son of Laurentiy Petrovich. Descending from the so-called political dynasty Verizov clan, Laurentiy Iosifovich attended the State University of Zolodolina, playing an active role in the university's Kadet wing and graduating in 1999 with a baccalaureate in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics. Laurentiy Iosifovich went directly to work for his aunt, Anna Mikhailovna, herself a deputy of the Zemsky Sobor. After working in her Zolodolina offices for a number of years, including her term as Minister for Finance, Laurentiy Iosifovich ran for the Sobor first in 2005, and then again in 2010, earning a higher placement on the Kadet list and thus joining the Federal Assembly's lower house.

Verizov has had a quick rise through the ranks of the Kadets and the Zemsky Sobor, common to his family, and allegations of nepotism have trailed him since his work for his aunt Anna Mikhailovna. Opposition deputies and even some anonymous members of the Kadet Sobor delegation have noted Laurentiy Iosifovich's supposed "lack of ambition" as well as an alleged "general lack of understanding" with regard to many parliamentary rules and procedures. They have also called rumors of Verizov succeeding Kadet leader Innokentiy Isyanov "preposterous", and Ispolnitel Nadezhda Vyrubova called Verizov a "pale imitation" of his great-grandfater Laurentiy Petrovich in a leaked 2011 conversation among Social Democratic and Kadet deputies.