 Rogozin was elected to the State Duma as a deputy from Voronezh Oblast in 1997, and he became a vocal activist for protection of rights of ethnic Russians in the former Soviet republics.Rogozin was re-elected to the State Duma in 1999 and then appointed the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, drawing a lot of media attention and a share of criticism for some of his flamboyant public remarks.In 2002, he was appointed a Special Representative of the Russian President to deal with Kaliningrad problems that arose by the Baltic states joining the European Union.