Russian cosmonaut Yuri M. Baturin is the first Russian politician to have flown in space.  On August 13, 1998, Baturin launched aboard a Soyuz TM 28 and conducted research for 11 days on the Space Station MIR as part of Expedition 26.  His last space flight was aboard a Soyuz TM 32, which launched on April 28, 2001.  Expedition 29 was a seven-day mission to the International Space Station which included the first commercial space tourist, American businessman Dennis Tito.

Baturin was a national security aide to former President Boris Yeltsin and in 1996 he became National Defense Council