• Forum
• SITREP

• Military

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space
• Public Eye

Further Reading

Dmitry Anatoliyevich Medvedev

On 07 May 2008, Dmitry Medvedev was sworn in as Russia's new leader. A technocrat and political appointee, Medvedev had never held elective office before 2008. Who is Medvedev? According to Russia Today, he is an "intelligent technocrat". Other observers said Medvedev was softer and more democratic than other potential candidates, and therefore Russia's relations with the West, above all the United States, could significantly improve with him as president. But experts warned Medvedev might clash with the so called siloviki, an influential grouping of secret service officials within the Kremlin.

Dmitry Anatoliyevich Medvedev (Medvedev is derived from the Russian for 'bear'), was born in Leningrad on 14 September 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 published on 16 April 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 a 50 percent stake in Fintsel and a 20 percent stake in Ilim Pulp Enterprises. He was also a lecturer at LGU and 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 5 January 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," (the Russian term for all the former Soviet republics that gained independance in 1991) 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, and "Izvestia." They were tweaked 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 would not 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 for the position.

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.

The other contender, Viktor Zubkov, had been the head of the Federal Financial Monitoring Committee since March 2004, which had been set up to counter money laundering. On 12 September 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 10 December 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 he had successfully kept the government stable through allowing various alliances of bureaucrats, security services members, and business people, 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 economy 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 were definite divisions between Russia and the West, but they shared very important common interests and worries such as the slowing of the global economy, which had become frighteningly evident in 2007. There were also the matters of 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 7 May 2008, Medvedev was the President of Russia. It was the 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 was an 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 was the PM of Russia.

Given their strong long and successful history together it was not a surprise that Putin became PM and would 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 were filled by politicians who were also in the cabinet of Putin. Medvedev and Putin shared 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 was 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 would have to have to receive consent from the Duma, which was currently controlled by the United Russia party which since May 2008, and was chaired by Putin. Therefore a change in PM would be highly unlikely unless that party were to loose control of the Duma. Medvedev also needed the Duma to support him and therefore needed to keep Putin appeased. Medvedev was also thought to feel obliged to let Putin run with more power than a normal PM would have.

Medvedev's popularity rating, was approximately 10 percent before he had received Putin's backing and ended up winning the election with 70 percent 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 would go. Putin's increased power could be seen from his the 11 deputies that he had in comparison to the 5 that the previous PM Viktor Zubkov had had. Analysts believed that the first year of Medvedev's presidency would be heavily influenced by Putin, and as time went on there would 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 amd also 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 an individual who was not a member of the United Russia Party. 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 were 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 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 was viewed as being more liberal than his predecessor. Some thought 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 were unknown although he had 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 was thought that he would 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 US missile defense plan in Eastern Europe, the introduction of former Soviet states into NATO and an independent Kosovo.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was widely expected to return to the job for a third term after President Dmitry Medvedev in September 2011 agreed to step aside, in a job swap with Putin. The Putin-Medvedev job swap plan was unveiled 24 September 2011 at a congress of Russia’s ruling United Party. The congress immediately rubber stamped it.