Dmitry Anatoliyevich Medvedev
Dmitry Anatoliyevich Medvedev [Medvedev is derived from the Russian for 'bear'],] was born in Leningrad on September 14, 1965, the only child of Anatoly Afanasiyevich Medvedev, a professor at the Leningrad Technological Institute and, Yulia Veniyaminovna Shaposhnikova, a teacher at the Hertzen Leningrad Pedagogical Institute.
It is widely reported that as a teen he became interested in western music especially Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and Deep Purple.
Medvedev graduated from secondary school in 1982, from which he enrolled in the law faculty of Leningrad State University (LGU) within the Department of Civil Law. During his time at the University he was active in the local Komsomol. In the mid-1980s, he took part in a Soviet youth project constructing housing in Leningrad. In 1987 he graduated from the University.
Like Putin, Medvedev is a member of the Russian Orthodox Church, which strongly supported his bid for the presidency, and had referred to Medvedev as a "believer." He was baptized in 1988 and had close ties to the Moscow Patriarchate. In March 2007 a government commission headed by Medvedev approved the Principle of Church Property Restitution, which called for the return of land, assets and property taken from the church after the 1917 Russian Revolution.
Svetlana Linnik and Medvedev were married in 1989. They have a son, Ilia, who was born in 1999.
In 1989, Medvedev took part in Anatoly Sobchak's St. Petersburg mayoral campaign; He soon started working for Anatoly Sobchak's mayoral team. Sobchak’s first deputy Vladamir Putin, selected Medvedev to be the city's legal expert. Putin and Medvedev became friends and continued to work together there until 1996. During Medvedev’s time in St. Petersburg, he worked on many other professional and business ventures.
He said [in an Interview with magazine Itogi April 16, 2007] “Like any normal person, I felt unease inside when the Soviet Union ceased to exist. It was hard to understand, an unpleasant feeling. I still remember the moment: I went on a business trip to Germany. I left from the Soviet Union but returned to a different country. It came as a great shock for me. As a lawyer, I looked at the situation differently to others and realised that just renaming the state would not be the end of it… Fortunately, though it found itself on the knife's edge, Russia managed to avoid collapse and full-scale civil war.”
He was a lawyer for the insurance company Rus in 1992. That same year he created the company, Fintsel which later founded Ilim Pulp Enterprises. Medvedev owned 50% stake in Fintsel and 20% stake in Ilim Pulp Enterprises. He was also a lecturer at LGU during this period, and was a legal consultant for Promstroibank. Medvedev worked as Ilim's legal director from 1994 to 1999.
In November 1999, Putin, Russia's Prime Minister (PM), appointed Medvedev to be his Deputy Chief of the Government Apparatus. Several months after that Medvedev became Deputy Chief the Presidential Administration. On January 5, 2000 Medvedev headed Putin's campaign for the presidency.
In June 2000, Medvedev became Gazprom‘s chairman of the board of directors, Where he participated in creating Gazprom's policies for the "near abroad," resulting in higher gas tariffs for Ukraine , Belarus, and Georgia. Under his direction Gazprom started buying news agencies such as NTV, Ekho Moskvy radio, City-FM, "Izvestia." and tweaked them to be more government friendly. Medvedev worked as a deputy for Aleksandr Voloshin the previous head of the presidential administration. In 2004, Medvedev became the head of the presidential administration. In 2005 Medvedev became Putin’s First Deputy PM responsible programs involving long-term state investment in education, health care, housing, and agriculture.
According to the 1993 Russian Constitution a President can only serve two consecutive terms, though a president can serve more than two terms. In the fall of 2007 Putin made it clear that he was not going to attempt to amend the Constitution and seek a third consecutive term as as President of Russia. Along with Medvedev, Putin could have supported either First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov or Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov.
Ivanov shared a KGB background with Putin. Ivanov's November 2005 appointment as Deputy Prime Minister made him second in line to the presidency, after Dmitry Medvedev. His February 2007 promotion, giving him a position equal to that of Medvedev while removing him from the much criticized and tarnished Defense Ministry, was seen as increasing the chance that Ivanov would become Putin's successor.
Since March 2004 Viktor Zubkov had been the head of the Federal Financial Monitoring Committee, set up to counter money laundering.On Sept. 12, 2007, Vladimir Putin put forward Zubkov as candidate to replace outgoing Mikhail Fradkov as prime minister of Russia. Zubkov, who had previously stayed well out of the limelight, was suddenly catapulted into the rank of one of the favorites to become the next president of Russia.
In a news conference at the Kremlin on Dec. 10, 2007, Putin sat at a table with Medvedev, United Russia party leader Boris Gryzlov, A Just Russia leader Sergei Mironov, the leader of the Civil Force Party and the Agrarian Party. Gryzlov said he offered his support for Medvedev and Putin assented. “I fully support this candidacy,” he said. The next day, Medvedev said, if elected, he would ask Putin to serve as his prime minister.
It seems that Medvedev was picked above the other two possible candidates because Putin wanted to maintain the current political system where Putin had successfully kept the government stable through allowing various alliances of bureaucrats, security services members, and businesspeople, who all competed for power.
Medvedev’s reputation for being liberal also helped him to get picked because a hard-liner might have hurt the Russian econo0my and standing in the world by scarring off potential Western allies and consumers. This reasoning also contributed to Putin’s decision not to amend the Constitution to allow himself to run again. There are definite divisions between Russia and the West but they share very important common interests and worries such as the slowing of the global economy which became frighteningly evident in 2007, international terrorism and preventing weapon’s proliferation. Backing a liberal member of the Cabinet showed a nervous West that Putin was willing to keep talking and that he did not want a complete alienation of the two sides.
As of May 7th 2008 Medvedev was the President of Russia. It was his first time he had held an elected position and was a member of no political parties. Politically, Medvedev created alliances with various divisions within the Duma. Primarily he is ally of Putin and some members of Putin’s United Russia party, which controlled and absolute majority in the Duma as of the elections in December of 2007. As of June 2008 Putin is the PM of Russia.
Given their strong long and successful history together it is not a surprise that Putin became PM and will probably be a strong force in Medvedev’s government. Putin’s influence over the Medvedev’s cabinet was impressive given that 16 of Medvedev’s 24 cabinet positions are filled by politicians who were also in the cabinet of Putin. Medvedev and Putin share an extremely strong relationship. In the company of his confidantes, Putin commented "Dima has never let me down".
Constitutionally the more powerful of the two positions is the Presidency, but Vladamir Putin had put into place several measures to prevent Medvedev from limiting his power. Should Medvedev attempt to remove Putin from power he will have to have to receive consent from the Duma, which is currently controlled by the United Russia party which since May 2008 is being chaired by Putin, and therefore a change in PM would be highly unlikely unless that party were to loose control of the Duma. Medvedev also needs The Duma to support him and therefore needs to keep Putin appeased. Medvedev also may feel obliged to let Putin run with more power than a normal PM would have.
Medvedev’s popularity rating, was approximately 10% before he had received Putin’s backing and ended up winning the election with 70% of the vote mainly because of Putin’s backing. As PM Putin would have control over the economy, and how and to whom the government’s money will go. Putin’s increased power can be seen from his the 11 deputies that he had in comparison to the five that the previous PM Viktor Zubkov had. Analysts believe that the first year of Medvedev’s presidency will be heavily influenced by Putin, and as time goes on there will be less and less intervention by the Putin.
Along with his position as the PM Putin also became the chairman of the United Russia Party. Putin attended the December 2007 parliamentary elections. Putin attended an April 2008 convention of the United Russia Party and accepted the parties chairmanship. United Russia members then voted unanimously to allow the President to hold a position, which had just been created. Party members then voted in a unanimous show of hands to a rule change that created the new position of chairman and allowing it to be held by and individual who was not a member of United Russia. A second unanimous vote elected Putin to the newly created position.
Medvedev also made allies with various liberals within the government. He had good relations with the oligarchs, many of them who are referred to as "syreviki" as they have gained wealth and power through their export of raw materials. In his home city of In St. Petersburg, Medvedev has close relations with various with parliamentarians and business people.
At the time he was elected President, Medvedev had yet to create strong relationships with the "siloviki" as a whole, though, he did have ties with various individuals of this group. The “siloviki” were those who originally made their way into politics through the security or military services. Media outlets have suggested that Medvedev was motivated by solidarity with those who have organizational biographies similar to his, rather than to any specific national interests.
Dmitriy Medvedev is viewed as being more liberal than his predecessor. Some think that the liberal impressions given by Medvedev early in 2008 were a ruse in attempt to comfort western leaders fearful of Putin-esque president. Medvedev's views are unknown although he has discussed issues such as reforms to the judicial system, protecting independent media, fighting corruption, and increasing the respect of private property, equal access to healthcare, education, other social support, and increasing the middle-class. As president it is thought that he will attempt to better Russia's transport, industrial, and social infrastructures, as he did in his collegiate years at LGU. In the Putin cabinet he supported the partnership between businesses and state.
Given past experiences with Gazprom, as of mid-2008 it was predicted that Medvedev would help the company with domestic price issues, tax issues and will probably show favor to them in government contracts. Concerning foreign policy issues, it was thought that Medvedev desires closer relationships with Europe and the United States. He was expected to attempt to turn Russia into an energy superpower. It was expected that he would continue Putin’s stance on the proposed U.S. missile defense plan in Eastern Europe, the introduction of former Soviet states into NATO and an independent Kosovo.
