Natan Sharansky, the Soviet dissident and a leader of Russian Jews in Israel, has resigned from the Israeli government over its plans to withdraw from Gaza.
Within Israeli politics, he has been a largely peripheral figure in recent years.
But a book of his, The Case for Democracy (co-written with Ron Dermer), has had a major influence on US President George W Bush.
President Bush devoted a significant proportion of his second inaugural address to ideas derived from the book and has been recommending it widely.
Soviet dissident
Anatoly Sharansky was born January 20, 1948 in Donetsk, Ukraine.
A mathematician by training and graduate of Moscow's Physics Institute, Mr Sharansky first applied for permission to emigrate to Israel in 1973.
The request led to his repeated imprisonment, often in solitary confinement.
He worked as an English interpreter for physicist and Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov, and also became a human rights activist.
Found guilty of "treason, hostile propaganda and espionage", he was sentenced to three years in prison and 10 years of forced labour in 1978. He was accused in the official press of being a CIA agent.
Hero's welcome
After the coming to power of Mikhail Gorbachev and his pursuit of the policy of Glasnost, Mr Sharansky was released and emigrated to Israel. He adopted the Hebrew name Natan on arrival in Israel, where he received a hero's welcome.
In 1989, US President Ronald Reagan presented him with the Congressional Gold Medal of Freedom.
In 1995, Mr Sharansky founded a political party, Yisrael B'Aliyah, (Israel on the rise), a party promoting the absorption of the Soviet Jews in Israel.
The party won seven Knesset seats in 1996 and he became minister of trade and industry. Mr Sharansky has also served as minister of internal affairs and minister of housing and construction.
Before resigning over the Israeli government's plans to withdraw from Gaza, he was a minister without portfolio in the government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
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