Arkady Dvorkovich

Savvy international investors know that in the past two years the government of Vladimir V. Putin has been pushing a sweeping package of measures that aims to kick-start Russia's economy -- by cutting taxes, slashing bureaucracy, and injecting competition into moribund industries. And they know about Russia's new 13% flat tax, which has proved surprisingly effective in raising revenue for the government.

But investors may not know the man most responsible for Russia's fiscal overhaul. That honor goes to Arkady V. Dvorkovich, 31, a deputy minister in Russia's Ministry for Economic Development & Trade (known as the economy ministry). An economist with a master's degree from Duke University as well as Moscow's New Economic School, Dvorkovich earned his stripes by serving as personal adviser to German O. Gref, the Economy Minister, in 2000-01, helping him to craft President Putin's reform program. An expert in public finance, he still oversees tax issues as deputy minister under Gref. In that role, Dvorkovich wants to trim payroll taxes to 30% from the current 35.6%, abolish the 5% sales tax, and slash the value-added tax to 16% from 20%.