Dmitry Medvedev

His father, Anatoly Afanasyevich Medvedev (November 1926 – 2004), was a chemical engineer teaching at the Leningrad State Institute of Technology.

Dmitry's mother, Yulia Veniaminovna Medvedeva (née Shaposhnikova, born 21 November 1939), studied languages at Voronezh University and taught Russian at Herzen State Pedagogical University.

Later, she would also work as a tour guide at Pavlovsk Palace.

The Medvedevs lived in a 40m2 apartment at 6 Bela Kun Street in the Kupchino Municipal Okrug (district) of Leningrad.

Dmitry was his parents' only child.

The Medvedevs were regarded at the time as a Soviet intelligentsia family.

His maternal grandparents were Ukrainians whose surname was Kovalev, originally Koval.

Medvedev traces his family roots to the Belgorod region.

As a child, Medvedev was intellectually curious, described by his first grade teacher Vera Smirnova as a "dreadful why-asker".

After school, he would spend some time playing with his friends before hurrying home to work on his assignments.

In the third grade, Medvedev studied the ten-volume Small Soviet Encyclopedia belonging to his father.

In the second and third grades, he showed interest in dinosaurs and memorised Earth's primary geologic development periods, from the Archean up to the Cenozoic.

In the fourth and fifth grades he demonstrated interest in chemistry, conducting elementary experiments.

He was involved to some degree with sport.

In grade seven, his adolescent curiosity blossomed through his relationship with Svetlana Linnik, his future wife, who was studying at the same school in a parallel class.

This apparently affected Medvedev's school performance.

Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev (born 14 September 1965) is a Russian politician who has served as deputy chairman of the Security Council of Russia since 2020.

Dmitry Medvedev was born on 14 September 1965 in Leningrad, in the Soviet Union.

He calls the school's final exams in 1982 a "tough period when I had to mobilize my abilities to the utmost for the first time in my life."

In the autumn of 1982, 17-year-old Medvedev enrolled at Leningrad State University to study law.

Although he also considered studying linguistics, Medvedev later said he never regretted his choice, finding his chosen subject increasingly fascinating, stating that he was lucky "to have chosen a field that genuinely interested him and that it was really 'his thing'".

Fellow students described Medvedev as a correct and diplomatic person who in debates presented his arguments firmly, without offending.

During his student years, Medvedev was a fan of the English rock bands Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, and Deep Purple.

He was also fond of sports, and participated in athletic competitions in rowing and weight-lifting.

Medvedev was also president of Russia between 2008 and 2012 and prime minister of Russia between 2012 and 2020.

Medvedev was elected president in the 2008 election.

He was seen as more liberal than his predecessor Vladimir Putin, who was prime minister in Medvedev's presidency.

Medvedev's agenda as president was a wide-ranging modernisation programme, aimed at modernising Russia's economy and society, and lessening the country's reliance on oil and gas.

During Medvedev's tenure, the United States and Russia signed the New START nuclear arms reduction treaty.

Russia won the Russo-Georgian War, and recovered from the Great Recession.

Medvedev also launched an anti-corruption campaign, yet was later being accused of corruption himself.

He served a single term in office and was succeeded by Putin following the 2012 presidential election.

Putin then appointed Medvedev as prime minister.

He resigned along with the rest of the government on 15 January 2020 to allow Putin to make sweeping constitutional changes and was succeeded by Mikhail Mishustin on 16 January 2020.

Putin appointed Medvedev the same day to the new office of deputy chairman of the Security Council.

To some analysts, Medvedev's presidency seemed to promise positive changes both at home and in ties with the West, signaling "the possibility of a new, more liberal period in Russian politics".

However by the 2020s he had adopted increasingly authoritarian and anti-West positions.

Observers both domestically and internationally suggested that the break with past rhetoric was Medvedev attempting to change his public image as a moderate subordinate to Putin.

He is considered by many sources to be a potential successor of Putin.

During the large-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, Medvedev for his views has been described as a "Russian rashist (Russian fascist)" and "Kremlin's Nazi" by Ukrainian and American media.