Sergei Alexandrovich Kulik has served since 2004 as head of the Department of Relations with the European Union in the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation in Moscow. He began work in the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation in 1997 as deputy director of the Department of Foreign Politics and later served as head of the Presidential Assistance Service and also as deputy head of information management. From 1999 to 2000, Mr. Kulik was first deputy director of the International Department of the Moscow Municipal Administration. Before joining politics, he spent several years at the Institute of USA and Canada of the Academy of Science of the Soviet Union (later the Russian Academy of Science), where he was deputy director of the Center and was head of the project, Stockholm International Institute for Research of World Problems. He holds degrees in political science from the Institute of Asian and African Nations of Moscow State University.