Background
Ipatov was born in the village of Asbestovskoye in Sverdlovsk Oblast and studied at the Urals Political College in Sverdlovsk.
Ipatov was born in the village of Asbestovskoye in Sverdlovsk Oblast and studied at the Urals Political College in Sverdlovsk.
In 1975 he graduated from the Ural State Technical University with a degree in electrical engineering and joined the power generation industry.
He is the first governor appointed by President Vladimir Putin, who replaced a directly elected governor. He was previously director of a nuclear-power plant. During the 1980s he was manager at the South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant and became chief engineer at the Balakovo Nuclear Power Plant in 1985 and managing director of this plant in 1989.
He became deputy managing director of Energoatom in 2002.
He was a deputy on Balakovo city council from 1996 to 2004, before being appointed governor of Saratov Oblast in 2005. On March, 23,2012, he resigned from the post according to the Decree of the President of the Russian Federationto be replaced by Valery Radaev.
The wording in the Decree was «resignation by his own will».
Ipatov belongs to United Russia.