Polina Alexandrovna Volkova

The Honourable Polina Alexandrovna Volkova Полина Александровна Волкова
President of Yavorstrana
Incumbent
Assumed office 16 February 2015
Preceded by	Sergei Drubetskoy
Leader of Civic Initiative
Incumbent
Assumed office 14 March 2006
Preceded by	Denis Bogomazov
Prime Minister of Yavorstrana
In office 14 March 2006 – 23 July 2014
Preceded by	Denis Bogomazov
Succeeded by	Anton Kvasov
Chair of the Treasury Select Committee
In office 27 August 2003 – 14 March 2006
Preceded by	Viktor Myshkin
Succeeded by	Vladimir Severny
Minister of Foreign Affairs
In office 3 February 1999 – 14 March 2006
Preceded by	Afanasy Davydov
Succeeded by	Anton Kvasov
Minister for Health and Social Care
In office 14 September 1997 – 3 February 1999
Preceded by	Boris Naumov
Succeeded by	Dmitry Kolesov
Government Whip
In office 11 January 1994 – 22 August 1995
Preceded by	Alexander Rostov
Succeeded by	Sergei Kotov
In office 18 May 1996 – 14 September 1997
Preceded by	Yekaterina Kudryashova
Succeeded by	Vladimir Zaporozhets
Deputy of the State Duma
In office 14 February 1992 – 23 July 2014
Preceded by	Vyacheslav Ostrovsky
Succeeded by	Klavdia Krylova
Constituency	At-large
Personal details
Born	Polina Alexandrovna Volkova neé Loktionova Полина Александровна Волкова Polina Aleksandrovna Volkova 14 May 1961 (age 63) Varykino, Kalynivka oblast, Yavorstrana
Nationality	Yavorstri
Political party	Civic Initiative (since 2002) National Conservatives (1980-2002)
Spouse	Stepan Ippolitovich Volkov (m. 1987)
Children	Nikolay Vladimir Stepan Xenia
Residence	Mikhaylovsky House
Alma mater	Svobodny University of Yuriatin (B.A. Politics, Philosophy, and Economics)
Profession	Politician
Website	prezident.gov.yf

Polina Alexandrovna Volkova (Yavorstri: Полина Александровна Волкова, tr. Polina Aleksandrovna Volkova; b. 14 May 1961) is a Yavorstri politician and the twenty-second, incumbent, President of Yavorstrana since 2015. Initially elected to the State Duma in the 1992 snap election, Volkova had previously served as a city councilor in Varykino. She joined the National Conservatives as a student in 1980, and would co-found its successor Civic Initiative as Minister of Foreign Affairs in 2002. Volkova has served as a government Whip, as well as held the ministerial portfolios for Health and Social Care as well as Foreign Affairs, the latter of which is considered one of Yavorstrana's Great Offices. Volkova also served as Chair of the influential Treasury Select Committee. She was Prime Minister of Yavorstrana from 2006 until her resignation in 2014, which was part of her campaign for the Yavorstri Presidency. Volkova is the third female and youngest Prime Minister, and the first female President of Yavorstrana.

Volkova is a self-professed "Sotirian democrat", and has coupled a liberal approach on the economy, foreign affairs, and the environment with a socially conservative outlook. As Prime Minister, she oversaw the partial privatization of the Yavorstri Postal Service among other nationalized services as well as the cancellation of the Yavorstri Infrastructure Reform Plan, a controversial programme started by her immediate predecessor. Volkova also suppressed certain legislation on LGBT rights during her tenure as Prime Minister, including a bill which would have expanded the right to civil unions into the right to marriage for partners of the same sex. This bill would pass in 2016 without Volkova's veto via the government of Prime Minister Nikolay Antipov in a compromise since termed the Great Balancing of 2016. Volkova repeatedly pressed her predecessor as President, Sergei Drubetskoy, on foreign matters traditionally meant to be controlled solely by the Presidential office; this caused controversy over the course of her premiership. Since her election as President, Volkova has expanded the Foreign Ministry and delegations to international bodies including the Euclean Community and the Community of Nations while also promoting enhanced Yavorstri involvement in the Association of Central Euclean States.

Polina Volkova began her political career as a student at the Svobodny University of Yuriatin, joining the student wing of the National Conservatives in 1980 and eventually becoming National Conservative President of the Associated Universities of Yuriatin in 1982, a largely ceremonial position but one which allowed her significant access to local party leaders and supporter groups. As such, upon graduation she went to in the offices of long-time Yuriatin deputy and eventual Prime Minister Anton Kvasov. After four years in Kvasov's ministerial offices, Volkova would run for the Yuriatin city council with the backing of the National Conservatives; she won the 1988 election in a surprise result, as the Conservatives had been consistently losing ground to the left-wing Democratic Union since the beginning of the decade. Volkova would go on to win reelection to the city council in 1990, and used the position and her cultivated connections within the local party to launch a campaign for a position on the NC closed-party list ahead of the 1991 general election. While she was not added to the list, after the 1991 expenses scandal she was added to a suddenly depopulated list, and elected comfortably. She was soon named a government Whip, and later joined the governments of several NC and Civic Initiative Prime Ministers.

Volkova was elected President of Yavorstrana in 2015 despite her Civic Initiative losing control of the State Duma for the first time since 1991, and the State Council for the first time since 1986. Considerably more popular than her party or her chosen successor as Prime Minister, former mentor Anton Kvasov, Volkova won the Presidency with over 55% of the vote compared her nearest competitor, Democratic Union politician Nikolay Fedorov, who took 31%. She was sworn in on 16 February 2015. Volkova announced her re-election campaign ahead of the 2020 general elections for her second term.