Lev Ponomarev lives in Moscow and is director of For Human Rights, an NGO. Lev Ponomarev was born on 2 September 1941 in the city of Tomsk. He received a PhD from the Moscow Physics and Technology Institute in 1965. In 1988 Lev Ponomarev was one of the founders of the Memorial Human Rights Society. In 1989, Lev Ponomarev was a trusted aide to Andrei Sakharov during the elections for People’s Deputies of the USSR. During 1989–1990 Lev Ponomarev was an active participant in the elections and in large-scale peaceful democratic demonstrations. He was a co-founder of the Democratic Russia political movement. Between 1990–1995 Lev Ponomarev served as a State Duma Deputy. In 1997 he founded the Movement For Human Rights. Lev Ponomarev is a founder and one of the most active members of the Common Action group which brings together leading members of the Russian human rights community. He was one of the main organizers of the All-Russia Emergency Congress for the Defence of Human Rights in January 2001. He is a founding-member of the Russian National Committee ‘For the End of War and Establishing Peace in the Chechen Republic’ and a co-chair of the Russian Association of Independent Observers for Public Oversight, which was organized in 2008.