His father, Gennady, finished seventh for the Soviet Union in the K-4 1000 m event at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.
As a junior he had won a K-4 500 m bronze medal at the 1998 Junior World Championships in Nyköping, Sweden but he first came to prominence in 2000 when he won three gold medals at the European under-23 championships at Boulogne, France (K-2 1000 m with Vadzim Makhneu, K-4 500 m, K-4 1000 m).