Penza, 15 September 2015. PenzaNews. Ivan Belozertsev, the winning candidate of the September 13 Penza region gubernatorial election, turned 57 on Tuesday, September 15.

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He is spending this day in the office occupied with the tasks at hand, a source close to the election winner told PenzaNews agency.

“There is election, there is the birthday, but the current tasks remain,” the anonymous source said.

According to them, Ivan Belozertsev “goes through the same schedule like before the election,” and the only difference “today is in receiving the compliments over the birthday and the victory.”

The elected governor will assume the office in an official ceremony during the next session of the Penza region Legislative Assembly scheduled on Monday, September 21.

Ivan (Alexandrovich) Belozertsev was born in Baranovo village of the Livny area in the Orlov region on September 15, 1958.

In 1980, he graduated from the Ulyanovsk Supreme Tank Command College as an engineer in tractor and wheel-based vehicles.

In 2000, Ivan Belozertsev was elected the deputy of the Penza City Duma of the third convocation. On Decembr 29, 2004, he was elected the chairman of the fourth convocation, and subsequently reelected for this post in 2009.

From June 2006 on, the official became the board chairman of the association “Municipal Entity Council of the Penza Region.”

From August 2008 to May 2011, he worked as the deputy secretary of public relations at the political council of the United Russia Penza region department, and moved on to the full-scale secretary position in May 2011.

On May 25, 2015, Ivan Belozertsev was appointed the acting governor of the Penza region by the decree of the Russian President Vladimir Putin, after the term of the previous governor Vasily Bochkarev, who had been heading the region since 1998, had ended.

On September 13, Ivan Belozertsev won the regional gubernatorial election. He received the support of the unrivaled public majority, with over 86% of the vote with the turnout of 62%.

He was awarded seven medals of the Russian Ministry of Defense and a medal “For Merits In Development of Penza City,” and holds a PhD in Pedagogical Sciences.