Biography of Dmitry Medvedev. Dmitry Medvedev recognized his page "in contact" as the official Portal of Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev
On the appointment of Dmitry Medvedev as Prime Minister of the Russian Federation. Out of 430 deputies, 374 voted for his candidacy, 56 were against, and there were no abstentions.
Dmitry Medvedev headed the government from May 8, 2012 to May 7, 2018 - 2 thousand 191 days, the longest of his predecessors in the post of prime minister since 1990. Resigned in connection with the inauguration of the elected President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin.
Origin, education, scientific degrees
Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev was born on September 14, 1965 in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg). Father - Anatoly Afanasyevich (1926-2004), was a professor at the Leningrad Technological Institute. Lensoviet (now - St. Petersburg State Technological Institute). Mother Yulia Veniaminovna (born 1939), philologist, taught at the Leningrad State Pedagogical Institute (now the Russian State Pedagogical University) named after. A. I. Herzen, later worked as a guide in Pavlovsk.
In 1987, Dmitry Medvedev graduated from the Faculty of Law of the Leningrad State University. A. A. Zhdanova (LSU; now - St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg State University), in 1990 - postgraduate study at the Law Faculty of St. Petersburg State University. Medvedev's classmates in the Faculty of Law of the Leningrad State University were Konstantin Chuichenko (now - Assistant to the President of the Russian Federation - Head of the Control Department of the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation), Nikolai Vinnichenko (Deputy Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation), Artur Parfenchikov (Head of Karelia).
PhD in Law. Assistant professor. In 1990 he defended his dissertation at St. Petersburg State University on the topic "Problems of the implementation of the civil legal personality of a state enterprise."
Carier start
In 1982, Medvedev worked as a laboratory assistant at the department of the Leningrad Technological Institute. Lensoviet.
In 1986-1991 he was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
In 1987-1990 he was an assistant at the Department of Civil Law of the Faculty of Law of Leningrad State University. In the spring of 1989, he participated in the election campaign of Anatoly Sobchak, professor of the law faculty of Leningrad State University, for the election of people's deputies of the USSR.
In 1990-1999, he was a lecturer at the Department of Civil Law of the Law Faculty of St. Petersburg State University.
At the same time, in 1990-1995, he was an adviser to the chairman of the Leningrad City Council of People's Deputies Anatoly Sobchak, an expert of the committee on external relations of the St. Petersburg mayor's office, chaired by Putin.
In the 1990s, he was a co-founder of Finzell and Ilim Pulp Enterprise commercial companies, which controlled a number of timber and pulp and paper industries.
in public service
From November 9 to December 31, 1999 - Deputy Head of the Government Office of the Russian Federation Dmitry Kozak.
From December 31, 1999 to June 3, 2000, he was deputy to Alexander Voloshin, head of the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation (from December 31, 1999, Vladimir Putin held the post of acting head of state, on March 26, 2000 he was elected president of the Russian Federation, on May 7, 2000 took office).
On February 15, 2000, Medvedev headed the campaign headquarters of presidential candidate Vladimir Putin.
From June 3, 2000 - First Deputy Head, from October 30, 2003 to November 14, 2005 - Head of the Presidential Administration.
In 2000-2008, he was also a member of the Board of Directors of OAO Gazprom. In June 2000 - June 2001 he served as chairman, in June 2001 - June 2002 - deputy chairman of the company. In 2002-2008, he again headed the board of directors of Gazprom.
On November 12, 2003, he became a member of the Security Council of the Russian Federation. From April 24, 2004 to May 25, 2008 and from May 25, 2012 to the present - a permanent member of the Security Council.
On November 14, 2005, he was appointed First Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Mikhail Fradkov, since September 2007 - Viktor Zubkov. He held this post until May 7, 2008. He oversaw the implementation of national projects, ensuring freedom of economic activity, developing competition and antimonopoly policy, pursuing state policy in the field of nature management and environmental protection, developing mass communications, interaction between the government and the judiciary and the prosecutor's office, and conducting state policy in the field of justice.
On December 10, 2007, the leaders of United Russia, Just Russia, the Agrarian Party and the Civil Force party, at a meeting with Putin, proposed to nominate First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev as a candidate for the post of head of state in the March 2, 2008 elections. On December 11, 2007, Medvedev announced that, if elected to the presidency, he intended to offer the post of prime minister to Putin. On December 17, 2007, at the VIII Congress of the United Russia party, Medvedev was officially nominated as a candidate for the presidency of the Russian Federation. In January 2008, his campaign headquarters was headed by the head of the Presidential Administration, Sergei Sobyanin.
Work in the highest government positions
March 2, 2008 Medvedev was elected President of the Russian Federation, gaining 70.28% of the vote (second place - the leader of the Communist Party Gennady Zyuganov, 17.72%). Became the youngest head of state in Russian history since 1917. Medvedev took office on May 7, 2008. He served as President of the Russian Federation until May 7, 2012. He was the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (including during the armed conflict with Georgia in August 2008), Chairman of the State Council of the Russian Federation.
From May 25, 2008 to May 25, 2012, as head of state, he served as chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation.
On September 24, 2011, at the XII Congress of United Russia, Medvedev proposed that in the next presidential elections in 2012, the chairman of the party, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, be nominated as a party candidate. The head of government, in turn, said that "this is a great honor" for him, and said that if he was elected, "Dmitry Anatolyevich ... will head the government of the Russian Federation in order to continue work on the modernization of all aspects of our life."
Since May 8, 2012 - Prime Minister of the Russian Federation (299 deputies out of 450 supported his candidacy, 144 were against).
Since May 22, 2012 - a member of the All-Russian political party "United Russia", since May 26 - the chairman of the party.
Participation in various bodies
Chairman of the International Board of Trustees of the Moscow School of Management "Skolkovo" (since September 2006), Board of Trustees of the Russian Bar Association (since 2007).
He was the Chairman of the Presidium of the Council for the Implementation of Priority National Projects (2006-2008).
He heads the presidiums of the councils under the President of the Russian Federation for the modernization of the economy and innovative development of Russia (since June 2012), for the implementation of priority national projects and demographic policy (since February 2013).
Manages government commissions on budget projections for the next financial year and planning period (since June 2012), on monitoring foreign investment in the Russian Federation and on protecting the health of citizens (both since October 2012), on issues of socio-economic development of the North - Caucasian Federal District (since March 2013), to coordinate the activities of the Open Government (since April 2013), on the socio-economic development of the Far East and on the use of information technology to improve the quality of life and business conditions (both - since September 2013), on the socio-economic development of the Kaliningrad region (since March 2015), on import substitution (since August 2015), on the agro-industrial complex and sustainable development of rural areas (since June 2016).
He heads the Advisory Council on Foreign Investments in Russia (since May 2012), as well as the Government Council for the Development of Domestic Cinematography (since June 2012).
Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the State Corporation "Bank for Development and Foreign Economic Affairs (Vnesheconombank)" (since August 2013).
Chairman of the Board of Trustees of St. Petersburg State University.
Information about income, titles, awards, publications
The amount of declared income for 2017 amounted to 8 million 565 thousand rubles. The wife did not declare income.
Acting State Councilor I class (2000).
Reserve colonel.
Awarded with the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, 1st class (2015). Has gratitude of the President of the Russian Federation (2003).
He is a Knight Grand Cross with Diamonds of the Order of the Sun of Peru (2008). Awarded the Orders of the Liberator (Venezuela; 2008), Glory (Armenia; 2011), Jerusalem (Palestinian National Authority; 2011), "Danaker" (2016; Kyrgyzstan).
He is one of the authors of the textbook "Civil Law" for educational institutions of higher professional education, edited by Alexander Sergeev and Yuri Tolstoy. I wrote four chapters for it: on state and municipal enterprises, credit and settlement obligations, transport law, maintenance obligations.
For the creation of the textbook he was awarded the Prize of the Government of the Russian Federation in the field of education for 2001.
Family, hobby
Married. Wife - Svetlana Vladimirovna Medvedeva (née Linnik) - was born on March 15, 1965 in Kronstadt, Leningrad Region, graduated from the Leningrad Financial and Economic Institute. Son - Ilya (born August 3, 1995) - graduated from the international law faculty of MGIMO.
Dmitry Medvedev is fond of photography. Fan of the football club "Zenith" (St. Petersburg).
Favorite rock band is Deep Purple. He also listens to Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin music.
Medvedev is one of the most active Internet users among Russian high-ranking officials. His Twitter account - @KremlinRussia - was launched on June 23, 2010, when Medvedev served as president of the Russian Federation (in the summer of 2011, the account was renamed to
Prime Minister of the Russian Federation
Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation since May 2012, chairman of the United Russia party. Third President of the Russian Federation (From May 2008 to May 2012). Prior to that, he was First Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation (2005-2008), Chairman of the Board of Directors of OAO Gazprom (2000-2001, 2002-2008), former head of the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation, curator of the Council for the Implementation of National Projects. Acting State Counselor of the Russian Federation of the first class, member of the Presidium of the Coordinating Council of the Russian Union of Lawyers. Candidate of Law, Honorary Doctor of Law, Faculty of Law, St. Petersburg State University.
Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev was born on September 14, 1965 in Leningrad. In 1987 he graduated from the Faculty of Law of Leningrad State University, in 1990 - postgraduate studies. Simultaneously with his postgraduate studies, he worked as an assistant at the Department of Civil Law of the Leningrad State University. In 1990 he defended his PhD thesis.
In June 1990, Medvedev joined the group of assistants to Anatoly Sobchak, chairman of the Leningrad City Council (Vladimir Putin was another assistant to Sobchak at that time). From 1991-1996, Medvedev was a legal expert for the Putin-led Committee on Foreign Relations of the St. Petersburg City Hall. In March 1994, Medvedev became an adviser to Putin, who took the post of first deputy mayor of the city.
In 1990-1999, Medvedev taught at the law faculty of the Leningrad State University (later St. Petersburg State University), was an assistant professor of civil law. He also worked in private law practice. In 1990, he became one of the co-founders of the Uran state small enterprise. In 1994, Medvedev, together with former classmates Anton Ivanov and Ilya Eliseev, established the Balfort Consulting Company. Chairman of the Duma Committee on Credit Organizations and Financial Markets).
In 1993, Medvedev began working as a director of legal affairs in the timber industry JV Ilim Pulp Enterprise (IPE), in the same year he became a co-founder of the Finzell company. In 1996, the JV IPE turned into a CJSC, the founder of which was 40 percent Finzell, and 20 percent of the IPE shares passed into the hands of Medvedev. In 1998, Medvedev joined the board of directors of OAO Bratsk Timber Complex, but in the fall of 1999 he left the leadership of the IPE and from the founders of Finzell. According to a number of publications, this happened at a time when the verification of the legality of a number of IPE privatization projects began.
In the autumn of 1999, on the proposal of Putin, who became prime minister, Medvedev was appointed deputy head of the government apparatus, headed by Dmitry Kozak. On December 31, 1999, by decree of Putin (who became acting president), Medvedev was appointed deputy Alexander Voloshin, head of the presidential administration, and in January 2000 he was relieved of his former position in the government. In February-March 2000, Medvedev headed the campaign headquarters of Putin, who ran for the presidency of the Russian Federation. In June 2000, by decree of President Putin, Medvedev was appointed first deputy head of the presidential administration.
Also in June 2000, Medvedev became chairman of the board of directors of OAO Gazprom, and in April 2001 he headed a working group to liberalize the company's share market. In June of the same year, he ceded his post as chairman of the board of directors of Gazprom to Rem Vyakhirev, who had shortly before lost his post as chairman of the board of the gas concern (Alexey Miller became the head of Gazprom). In June 2002, after the departure of Vyakhirev, Medvedev was again elected chairman of the board of directors of OAO Gazprom.
On October 30, 2003, Medvedev was appointed head of the presidential administration in place of Voloshin, who had resigned. On November 13, 2003, he became a member of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, and in April 2004 he received the status of a permanent member of the Russian Security Council.
In March 2004, against the background of the change of the government of Mikhail Kasyanov to the cabinet of Mikhail Fradkov, Medvedev was again appointed head of the presidential apparatus, while he had only two deputies left - Igor Sechin and Vladislav Surkov, the rest of the former deputies began to be called presidential assistants. On October 21, 2005, Medvedev received the position of curator of the council for the implementation of national projects (President Putin retained the overall leadership of the new body). The new appointment was supposed to raise Medvedev's political rating, since the national projects at that time were one of the most popular undertakings of the authorities. On November 14, 2005, Medvedev was appointed First Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation and relieved of his post as head of the presidential administration. In May 2006, Medvedev headed the commission for the development of television and radio broadcasting.
In July 2006, Medvedev entered into a public controversy with Surkov and another Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Sergei Ivanov, criticizing in an interview given to Expert magazine the concept of "sovereign democracy", actively promoted by Surkov and aimed at strengthening Ivanov's position as a successor Putin. In October 2006, according to the results of a poll conducted by the Levada Center, Medvedev received the votes of 30 percent of respondents ready to take part in the 2008 presidential election.
On September 12, 2007, Medvedev became interim First Deputy Prime Minister due to the fact that Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov asked President Putin to resign his Cabinet in full force. The prime minister substantiated his request with a desire to give the president the freedom to make personnel decisions on the eve of the parliamentary and presidential elections. Putin accepted the resignation, asking the prime minister and other ministers to temporarily fulfill their duties.
On September 14, 2007, Viktor Zubkov was officially approved as prime minister, and on September 24, the new composition of the government became known: Medvedev remained in it as first deputy prime minister.
On December 10, 2007, the leaders of United Russia, Just Russia, the Agrarian Party and the Civil Force party nominated First Deputy Prime Minister Medvedev for the presidency of Russia. The incumbent President Putin supported this decision. After that, Medvedev announced that if he wins, he intends to appoint Putin as prime minister. Putin agreed. On January 20, 2008, Medvedev was officially registered as a presidential candidate in Russia.
On March 2, 2008, presidential elections were held in Russia. Medvedev won them a landslide victory, gaining more than 70 percent of the Russian vote. On May 7 of the same year, he took office as President of Russia.
In August 2008, relations in South Ossetia, the zone of presence of Russian peacekeepers, escalated. Medvedev called the entry of Georgian troops into the territory of the unrecognized republic and the shelling of its capital, Tskhinvali, an act of aggression against peacekeepers and civilians. On August 9, he announced the start of an operation "to force peace" - on the same day, Russian tanks and armored personnel carriers entered South Ossetia, and the Russian Air Force launched airstrikes on military targets in Georgia. The settlement plan in the zone of the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict, developed during the negotiations between President Medvedev and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, was signed in the same month. In the press, the military conflict on the territory of South Ossetia was subsequently referred to as the "five-day war." On August 26, Medvedev officially announced that he had signed decrees on the recognition by the Russian Federation of the independence of South Ossetia and the independence of Abkhazia.
On November 5, 2008, during his first address to the Federal Assembly, Medvedev proposed holding an all-Russian referendum on changing the Russian constitution, extending the term of office of the president by two years, the State Duma by one year, and also changing the principle of forming the Federation Council, expanding its powers and obliging government to report to parliament. These amendments were adopted by both houses of Parliament and were approved by the President on December 30, 2008.
In September 2011, Medvedev withdrew from the 2012 presidential election and headed the federal list of the United Russia party in the elections to the State Duma of the sixth convocation. After the elections, he refused the deputy mandate.
On March 4, 2012, Putin won the presidential election with 63.60 percent of the vote in the first round. On May 7, 2012, Medvedev conceded to him the presidency of Russia, and Putin submitted Medvedev's candidacy to the State Duma for approval for the post of prime minister. The next day, May 8, the State Duma voted to appoint Medvedev to the post of Prime Minister. On May 26, 2012, Medvedev was elected chairman of the United Russia party.
Medvedev is an active state adviser of the Russian Federation of the 1st class, a member of the presidium of the coordinating council of the Russian Union of Lawyers. Since 2005 - Honorary Doctor of Law of the Law Faculty of St. Petersburg State University. In 2001, as part of a team of authors, he received an award from the Government of the Russian Federation in the field of education for the creation of a three-volume textbook "Civil Law for Law Schools", subsequently reprinted several times. Medvedev is known among specialists for his works in the field of transport law, the legal personality of legal entities and the legal regulation of credit and settlement relations.
According to media reports, Medvedev's Kremlin nickname is Vizier. In 2007-2008, information appeared in the press that, due to the low growth, Medvedev was also called Nanopresident. Medvedev is married and has a son, Ilya, born in 1995.
Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev - President of the Russian Federation from 2008 to 2012, since May 2012 heads the Government of the Russian Federation.Childhood and youth of Dmitry Medvedev
Dmitry Medvedev was born into an intelligent Leningrad family. 
His father, Anatoly Afanasyevich Medvedev, was a professor at the Leningrad Technological Institute. Lensoviet (currently - St. Petersburg State Technical University), and my mother, Yulia Veniaminovna, taught at the Pedagogical Institute. Herzen, later worked as a guide in the suburban reserve Pavlovsk. Dmitry was the only child in the family.
Dmitry Medvedev's childhood passed in the residential area of Leningrad - Kupchino. He attended school number 305 on Budapest Street. Nina Pavlovna Eryukhina, Medvedev's class teacher, recalled that Dmitry devoted all his time to studying, was fond of chemistry and often stayed in the office, conducting various experiments, but he was rarely seen walking with classmates. By the way, Dmitry still keeps in touch with the teachers of his native school.
In 1979, Dmitry joined the Komsomol, a member of which he remained until August 1991.
In 1982, Dmitry Medvedev graduated from high school, after which he entered the law faculty of St. Petersburg State University, which in those years bore the unpronounceable name of the Leningrad Order of Lenin and the Order of the Red Banner of Labor State University. Zhdanov.
Nikolai Kropachev, who at that time was a graduate student at the department of criminal law (in 2008 he became the rector of St. Petersburg State University), described student Medvedev as follows: “A strong, good student. He went in for sports, in particular weightlifting. Once he won something for his faculty. But in the main classes, he was the same as everyone else. Only diligently.
By the way, in his youth, the politician was fond of hard rock, his favorite bands are Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Dmitry listened to domestic rock, in particular, Chaif. In addition, as a student, Medvedev became the owner of the Smena-8M camera and became seriously interested in photography. Dmitry Medvedev did not serve in the army, but as a student he completed military training in Khukhoyamaki (Karelia).
In 1987, Dmitry received a law degree, then continued his scientific career in graduate school. For the next three years, he worked on his Ph.D. thesis on the topic “Problems of the implementation of the civil legal personality of a state enterprise”, while simultaneously teaching at the department of civil law at his alma mater, and also moonlighting as a janitor for 120 rubles a month.
Political career of Dmitry Medvedev
When the elections of the Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR were held in March 1989, Professor Anatoly Sobchak was also among the deputies who ran. The future mayor of St. Petersburg was Medvedev's supervisor, and the young graduate student helped his mentor as much as possible: he put up posters, agitated passers-by on the streets, and spoke at election rallies. 
When Dmitry Medvedev defended his PhD in 1990, Sobchak, who already held the post of chairman of the Leningrad City Council, invited his ward to the staff, saying that he would need "young and modern" people. The young man accepted the offer, becoming one of Sobchak's advisers, while continuing to teach at the department. It was at Sobchak's headquarters that Medvedev first met Vladimir Putin, who was also invited to work by Anatoly Alexandrovich.
When Anatoly Sobchak was elected mayor of Leningrad in 1991, Putin followed him and became vice-mayor, Dmitry Medvedev returned to teaching and also became a freelance expert for the Committee on Foreign Relations of the administration of St. Petersburg under Putin. As part of this position, he was sent to Sweden, where he completed an internship in local government.
In 1993, Dmitry became one of the co-founders of Finzell CJSC, where he owned half of the shares, as well as the legal director of the Ilim Pulp Enterprise pulp and paper corporation, and later was appointed Ilim's representative on the Board of Directors of the Bratsk timber industry complex.
In 1996, Dmitry Medvedev stopped working with Smolny in connection with the loss of Sobchak to Vladimir Yakovlev in the gubernatorial elections. And in 1999 he was appointed to the position of Deputy Chief of Staff of the Government of the Russian Federation. As suggested by the editors of the site, in connection with the appointment, he left teaching and moved to the capital.
After the departure of Boris Yeltsin, Dmitry Anatolyevich became deputy head of the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation. In 2000, after Vladimir Putin won the presidential election, he took the post of First Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration.
At the same time, he took over as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Gazprom (in 2001 he was listed as Deputy Chairman) and held this responsible position until 2008.
From autumn 2003 to autumn 2005, Dmitry Medvedev headed the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation. In the same 2003, he was appointed a member of the Russian Security Council.
From October 2005 to July 2008, Dmitry Medvedev was First Deputy Chairman of the Presidential Council for the Implementation of National Projects and Demographic Policy. At the end of 2005, he was appointed First Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation (reappointed to the position in September 2007).
From mid-2006, for two years, Medvedev was chairman of the presidium of the Council for the implementation of national projects.
The election campaign of Dmitry Medvedev
In November 2005, Medvedev's election campaign started de facto on central television channels; at the same time, Dmitry Anatolyevich's pre-election website was registered. A few months later, the politician began to be mentioned in the press as a favorite of Vladimir Putin. 
In September 2006, Medvedev headed the International Board of Trustees of the Skolkovo Moscow School of Management. And six months later, in early 2007, Medvedev began to be called the main potential candidate for the Russian presidency. According to analysts, even then 33% of voters in the first round and 54% in the second were ready to vote for him.
The active phase of the election campaign began in October 2007. A couple of months later, Putin supported Medvedev's candidacy, after which, at the congress of United Russia, Dmitry Anatolyevich was officially nominated for the presidency.
During the submission of documents to the Central Election Commission, Dmitry Medvedev announced that he would leave the post of the Gazprom Board of Directors if he became president.
Presidency of Dmitry Medvedev
On March 2, 2008, Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev was elected the third president of the Russian Federation, ahead of his main rivals - Vladimir Zhirinovsky (LDPR), Gennady Zyuganov (KPRF) and Andrei Bogdanov (DPR) - with an overwhelming majority of 70.28% of the votes. 
Two months after the official summing up of the election campaign (May 7), Dmitry Medvedev was inaugurated. In his inaugural speech, he stated the need to focus on civil and economic freedoms. The first decree signed by Medvedev in his new position was the Federal Law, which was supposed to provide free housing for veterans of the Great Patriotic War.
The beginning of Medvedev's presidency coincided with the beginning of the global financial crisis and with the armed conflict with Georgia on the territory of South Ossetia, which became the most significant event in Medvedev's foreign policy.
Dmitry Medvedev on the conflict in South Ossetia (2013)
As Dmitry Anatolyevich himself admitted, the so-called "five-day" war came as a surprise to him. Some tension in relations between Russia and Georgia was felt in early 2008, but, according to the president, he "had no idea what ideas live in Saakashvili's inflamed brain."
The escalation of the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict took place at the end of July - the beginning of August; third month of Medvedev's presidency. On the night of August 7-8, the Minister of Defense called the President and told about the beginning of hostilities by the Georgian troops. When Anatoly Serdyukov reported the death of Russian peacekeepers, Medvedev ordered to open fire to kill. It was his personal decision, made without the participation of ministers. On the morning of the 8th, Russian aviation began shelling military facilities located on the territory of Georgia.
On August 12, 2008, Dmitry Anatolyevich and French President Nicolas Sarkozy adopted a plan to resolve the contradictions, signed a few days later by the presidents of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, as well as Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili.
Despite decisive action by the president at a critical moment, many analysts tend to believe that Medvedev's foreign policy has been punctuated by both comparative successes and obvious setbacks. So, despite the initially well-established relations between Medvedev and Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who replaced Viktor Yushchenko, Ukraine never joined the Customs Union, and the situation with the “gas” relations of the countries worsened.
Great excitement among the patriotic public was caused by Medvedev's position on the Libyan issue. At his request, Russia abstained from voting on a resolution in the UN Security Council when its members were deciding on a possible military operation in Libya to protect the civilian population from Gaddafi's troops.
Events in Libya quarreled between Putin and Medvedev
The efforts of Dmitry Medvedev in the social sphere have borne fruit: during his presidency, population growth has stabilized, reaching a peak value in several decades, the percentage of large families has increased; the real incomes of the population increased by almost 20%, the average size of pensions doubled; more than a million families have improved their living conditions thanks to the maternity capital program. Much has been done in the field of small business - Medvedev contributed to the simplification of the procedure for starting one's own business, and also removed some restrictions for entrepreneurs.
The foundation was laid for the creation of a powerful research center, which was supposed to become an analogue of the American Silicon Valley. In September 2010, Medvedev signed FZ-244 "On the Skolkovo Innovation Center". The working group of the Skolkovo project was led by Vladislav Surkov.
Dmitry Medvedev about Skolkovo
At the initiative of the President, in 2009-2011, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia was reformed, and law enforcement agencies were renamed "police". Also, according to the Minister of Internal Affairs Rashid Nurgaliyev, the level of social protection and the efficiency of the work of employees of internal bodies was increased.
With the support of Anatoly Serdyukov, the reform of the Armed Forces was also initiated, which consisted in optimizing the number of officers, optimizing the management system (transition from a 4-tier hierarchy to a 3-tier one) and reforming military education.
Also, during Medvedev's cadence, the presidential term was increased from 4 to 6 years, and that of the Duma - from 4 to 5. In September 2010, Medvedev removed Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, who had exhausted the government's credit of trust. Subsequently, Sergei Sobyanin was appointed to take his place.
In September 2011, it was announced that Vladimir Putin would nominate his candidacy in the presidential elections in 2012, and in case of victory, Dmitry Medvedev would head the government.
The results of the presidency of Dmitry Medvedev
In general, Dmitry Medvedev's presidency has received mixed reviews. Thus, the well-known publicist Dmitry Bykov reproached him with “hypertrophied attention to the third-rate”, many public figures criticized Medvedev for the lack of real power, while Alexei Kudrin, who was the Minister of Finance until September 2011, stated that he “was a witness to the development and adoption of many key decisions” personally Medvedev.
Dmitry Medvedev was especially warmly treated by Russian Internet users. Thanks to his interest in technology and openness of character, the president has repeatedly become the subject of videos that are rapidly spreading across the Web. For example, a video in which Dmitry Medvedev dances to the song "American Boy" along with showman Garik Martirosyan has collected several million views.
Dmitry Medvedev dancing
Further activities of Dmitry Medvedev
After Vladimir Putin was elected President in the 2012 elections, Dmitry Medvedev headed the Government and became the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation. Under his leadership are prominent political figures of Russia: First Deputy Igor Shuvalov, Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu, Minister of Internal Affairs Vladimir Kolokoltsev, Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov, Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky and others. 
In May 2012, Dmitry Medvedev was appointed chairman of United Russia.
In 2016, Dmitry Medvedev headed the Government of the Russian Federation and the United Russia party, being one of the country's key political figures. He was elected to the main Program Commission, which was involved in the development of the political course of the party. He oversaw economic issues, in particular, pricing and import substitution, solved problems in the field of healthcare and education. Several times he visited Crimea on a business trip, which was the reason for the protest note of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry.
Dmitry Medvedev: “There is no money, but you hold on”
In early 2017, the prime minister was at the center of a major corruption scandal. Opposition politician Alexei Navalny and members of his Anti-Corruption Foundation posted on YouTube a 50-minute video investigation titled "He's not Dimon to you" (a reference to a quote from the Prime Minister's press secretary Natalya Timakova), alleging that Medvedev was heading a multi-level corruption scheme based on on charitable foundations. The key place in the investigation was occupied by the "Dar" fund, headed by a classmate of the prime minister, Ilya Eliseev. The film also showcased Medvedev's alleged mansions in Phesako, his vineyard and castle in Tuscany, and two yachts, the Fotinia.
On March 26, thousands of Russians took to the streets demanding answers from the government to the allegations in the FBK film. The answer from Dmitry Anatolyevich was made on April 19. “I will not specifically comment on the absolutely false products of political crooks,” he said during a speech in the State Duma. On June 12, another wave of anti-corruption rallies awaited Russia.
Hobbies and personal life of Dmitry Medvedev
The wife of Dmitry Medvedev is Svetlana Linnik, his school friend from the parallel. According to Dmitry Anatolyevich, mutual sympathy between them arose back in their school years, but only in the senior class did he pluck up the courage and confess to the girl in his feelings. 
After graduation, their paths diverged: Svetlana became a student at LEFI, while Dmitry chose Leningrad State University; during the student period, they practically did not communicate, but a chance meeting reminded them of past feelings. In 1989, the lovers got married.
In August 1995, Dmitry and Svetlana became parents - the boy who was born was named Ilya. Medvedev Jr. grew up capable of exact sciences, was fond of football, saber fencing and computer technology. In 2007, he starred in several episodes of Yeralash by Boris Grachevsky. In 2012, Ilya entered MGIMO with 359 points out of 400 possible.
"Yeralash" with the son of Dmitry Medvedev
The Medvedev family loves animals. The spouses have a cat and a cat of the Neva Masquerade breed - Dorofei and Milka, who more than once became the heroes of news articles. Dmitry Medvedev is also the owner of four dogs: English setters Daniel and Jolie, a Central Asian Shepherd Dog whose name is unknown to the press, and a golden retriever Alba.
It's no secret that Dmitry Medvedev closely follows new technologies and is an active user of social networks. Medvedev's first computer appeared in the early 80s; it was a Soviet M-6000 computer. He is registered on Odnoklassniki, VKontakte, Twitter and Instagram, and was one of the first politicians to start addressing the population through a video blog.
Steve Jobs gave Dmitry Medvedev an iPhone
The former president is fond of photography, often pleases his subscribers with his work on the Instagram social network. In 2011, he participated in the photo exhibition "The World Through the Eyes of Russians" with a photograph of the Tobolsk Kremlin.
Dmitry Medvedev now
After the 2018 presidential election, Dmitry Medvedev retained the prime minister's chair. Although the deputies of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and Just Russia (with the exception of 4 people) refused to support his candidacy, most of the deputies of the State Duma supported his appointment - 376 people, i.е. 83%. During a speech to members of the lower house of parliament, Medvedev thanked them for their trust and announced the upcoming increase in the retirement age. 
Name: Dmitry Medvedev
Age: 53 years old
Height: 163
Activity: Russian statesman and politician, Prime Minister of the Russian Federation
Family status: married
Dmitry Medvedev: biography
Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev is one of the brightest political figures in the government of the Russian Federation. Currently, he is Deputy Head of the Russian Federation and holds the position of Prime Minister of Russia. In the period 2008-2012, he was the third president of the Russian Federation, before that he headed the board of directors of OAO Gazprom.
Medvedev Dmitry Anatolyevich was born on September 14, 1965 in the "sleeping" district of Leningrad in a family of teachers. Parents Anatoly Afanasyevich and Yulia Veniaminovna worked as teachers in pedagogical and technological universities. Dima was the only child in the family, so he received the utmost care and attention from his parents, who tried to invest the best qualities in their son and instill in him a love of learning.
They succeeded in full - at school No. 305, where Medvedev received his education, the boy clearly showed his abilities, strove for knowledge, showing interest in the exact sciences. Teachers remember him as a diligent, diligent and calm student, who was rarely seen with his peers in the yard, since he devoted all his time to study.
In 1982, after graduating from school, Dmitry Medvedev entered the Faculty of Law at Leningrad State University, where he also proved himself to be a successful student with pronounced leadership qualities. In his student years, the future chairman of the government of the Russian Federation became interested in rock music, photography and weightlifting. In 1990 he defended his dissertation and became a candidate of legal sciences.
The politician himself says that in his student years he worked as a janitor, for which he was paid 120 rubles, which was a significant increase in the increased 50-ruble scholarship.
Career
Since 1988, Dmitry Medvedev has been teaching at the Leningrad State University, teaching civil and Roman law to students. Along with teaching, he showed himself as a scientist and became one of the co-authors of the three-volume textbook "Civil Law", for which he wrote 4 chapters.
Medvedev's political career began in 1990. At that time, he became the "favorite" adviser to the first mayor of Saint Petersburg. A year later, he became a member of the St. Petersburg City Hall Committee for External Relations, where he worked as an expert under the guidance of.
At that time, Anatoly Sobchak became a kind of "guide" to the world of big politics for novice politicians, thanks to which many high-ranking officials and statesmen of Russia from his team currently hold their positions.
In the period of the 90s, the future Prime Minister of the Russian Federation actively manifested himself in the field of business. In 1993, he became a co-founder of Frinzel OJSC, he owns 50% of the company's shares. At the same time, Dmitry Medvedev became director of legal affairs at the Ilim Pulp Enterprise timber industry corporation. In 1994, Dmitry Anatolyevich joined the management team of OAO Bratsk Timber Industry Complex.
Prime Minister of the Russian Federation
The biography of Dmitry Medvedev finally went in a political direction in 1999. Then he became Vladimir Putin's deputy in the mayor's office of St. Petersburg, who at that time headed the apparatus of the government of the Russian Federation. In 2000, by decree of the new President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin, Medvedev was appointed to the post of first deputy head of the presidential administration.
In 2003, after the resignation of the former Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Alexander Voloshin, the politician headed the presidential administration. Then he entered the Security Council and received the status of a permanent member of this department. In 2006, at the beginning of the presidential election campaign, many analytical centers began to predict Dmitry Anatolyevich for the presidency of the Russian Federation, considering him Putin's first favorite.
A rumor leaked to the media that two years before the elections, the Kremlin created the Successor project under the supervision of . The forecasts were confirmed - in 2007, Dmitry Medvedev's candidacy for the post of Russian head was supported by Vladimir Putin and members of the United Russia party.
As soon as Dmitry Anatolyevich began to appear frequently in newspapers and on television, the public noted his extraordinary resemblance to the emperor. Some sources began to publish theories about reincarnation or a secret conspiracy, for the execution of which a person who looks like an emperor should be in power, while others started talking about fate and that Medvedev was destined to rule the country, since he has such a speaking appearance.
Conspiracy theories began to surround the politician who gained popularity. Websites have appeared on the Internet claiming that all of Dmitry Medvedev's personal data is forged to hide that he is Jewish by nationality, and his real name is Mendel. Official representatives of the Kremlin do not even comment on such theories, considering them not worth the attention of politicians.
President of the Russian Federation
On March 2, 2008, Dmitry Medvedev won a landslide victory in the presidential race, gaining about 70% of the votes. In May, the inauguration of the youngest president of Russia took place. During the event, Medvedev outlined priority goals and noted that in his new position, his primary and main tasks will be the development of economic and civil liberties, as well as the creation of new civic opportunities.
The first decrees of the third president of the Russian Federation concerned the development of the social sphere: education, health care, and improving the living conditions of veterans. Natalya Timakova became the presidential press secretary, making her the first woman to hold this position in Russia.
In 2009, Medvedev published his article “Forward Russia!”, in which he formulated his views and theses regarding the modernization of the country. The most famous project of the young head of the Russian Federation was the creation of Skolkovo - "Russian Silicon Valley", on the territory of which an innovative complex was erected, the work of which was aimed at developing and concentrating international intellectual capital.
Medvedev also fell to the five-day war with Georgia, which began against the background of the conflict with South Ossetia. Then Dmitry Anatolyevich signed a decree according to which Russian troops were sent to protect Russia's southern neighbor, as a result of which the Georgian troops were defeated. At that time, there was a surge of patriotic sentiment in Russian society, so Medvedev's foreign policy was largely supported by the population.
As president, Dmitry Medvedev also continued Putin's policy of developing agriculture and the country's socio-economic direction. Resonant decrees were the reorganization of the system of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, the abolition of winter time and the introduction of amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation, providing for the extension of the terms of office of the head of state from 4 to 6 years. Also in the achievement of Dmitry Medvedev can be attributed the creation of the Anti-Corruption Council of Russia.
Technologies
Dmitry Anatolyevich's trip to the USA, to Silicon Valley, attracted particular attention of the general public. As part of this trip, the President of the Russian Federation met with the idol of millions, the head of Apple. The purpose of the meeting was to talk about new technologies and the prospects for the development of the IT market, which was supposed to help create an analogue of Silicon Valley in Russia - Skolkovo. At the end of the meeting, Steve Jobs gave Medvedev an iPhone 4, a novelty of the time, a smartphone that was not supposed to go on sale until the day after the meeting.
To the surprise of the public, when the president returned to Russia, he did not use the gift. The press tried to find political overtones in this, but everything turned out to be much simpler. Medvedev was presented with an ordinary smartphone for the United States with a connection to the network, and in Russia the iPhone simply stopped working. This problem is known to many users of American phones who have decided to buy equipment abroad cheaper, so there is a whole illegal sector of services to remove the lock. But it is impossible to imagine that the head of state will use a hacked phone.
The president's fascination with new technologies, and especially communications, led not only to the creation of Skolkovo, but also to innovations in Russian politics and its ways of interacting with the people. Dmitry Medvedev created a blog on the Live Journal platform as a channel for quick and direct communication with the president. Although this method was used for the first time, it received public approval and began to develop actively.
Soon, Dmitry Anatolyevich registered on the social networks VKontakte and Facebook, and his press secretary turned to the audience of the sites with a request to use new communication channels to discuss current problems and events, and not for practical jokes and self-expression. In addition, the politician has an official Instagram account with 2.6 million followers, despite the fact that there are not many photos posted. On Medvedev's Instagram, a fairly large percentage of photos are images of colorful Russian nature, and the other is frames from official events and trips.
The ex-president loves communications technology, but technology doesn't always love him. During the broadcast of the speech of the President of the Russian Federation on Latvian television, a technical failure occurred, and under the name of Dmitry Medvedev, the inscription "President of Latvia" appeared. The moment of failure was captured by one of the viewers, who posted the confirmation on the Internet. The momentary glitch spawned a wave of humor and conspiracy theories.
Second term
In 2011, during a meeting of the United Russia party, Medvedev said that Vladimir Putin, then prime minister, should run for president. The meeting participants and delegates in the amount of about 10 thousand people gave a standing ovation to this statement. In 2012, after the victory of Vladimir Putin in the presidential elections in Russia, Dmitry Medvedev was appointed Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, and a little later he headed the United Russia political party.
Kremlin officials consider Dmitry Medvedev an excellent administrator, a decent person, a modern, out-of-the-box thinking and competent lawyer. According to media reports, colleagues and associates in the civil service call Dmitry Anatolyevich "Vizier" or "Nanopresident", which is most likely due to Dmitry Anatolyevich's passion for new technologies and the low growth of the politician. According to unofficial data, Medvedev's height is 163 cm.
In 2015, "breaking news" appeared on several sites with Ukrainian hosting, which talked about a plane crash in which "the prime minister of Russia died." The text, which was copied verbatim from site to site, said that the plane took off from Sheremetyevo and allegedly crashed two minutes after takeoff. In addition to the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry, and the head of Chechnya were "present" on board the aircraft. Numerous media outlets and Medvedev himself immediately denied the fake, which did not prevent news with the same text from appearing on various sites exactly one year later and again sowing confusion in the press.
Humor and scandals
The latest developments in the work of the Prime Minister and his proposals and initiatives attract great public attention, often in a negative and humorous manner. Many of his statements become memes and aphorisms and spread across the Web in less than a day.
In May 2016, the press began quoting Dmitry Medvedev's scandalous statement: "There is no money, but you hold on" in response to a complaint about low pensions. The phrase spread around almost all the media, and in various variations appeared on humorous sites and social networks.
Meme on saying "There is no money, but you hold on" While some part of the public came up with new jokes, another was openly indignant at the fact that the government refuses to take care of pensioners. As it turned out later, the scandalous phrase was simply taken out of context, in fact, Dmitry Anatolyevich promised the pensioner that the indexation would take place a little later, when the opportunity arose, and then, already saying goodbye, he wished to hold on, adding to this other warm wishes.
The summer of 2016 gave the public another odious statement by the Prime Minister. This time, during the forum "Territory of Meanings", Dmitry Anatolyevich spoke about teachers. When asked about the low salaries of teachers, Medvedev replied that teaching is a calling, and that an energetic teacher will always find an opportunity to earn extra money, and if a person wants to earn a lot, then he should think about changing his profession and go into business.
This reasoning caused a stormy condemnation from the citizens of the country, who are sure that teachers and other state employees should receive decent salaries, and not choose between vocation and well-being. Many teachers considered the prime minister's words offensive.
In the autumn of the same year, the Internet began to quote Dmitry Anatolyevich again. During the ceremony of signing the agreements following the meeting of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council, Medvedev half-jokingly, half-seriously proposed to rename the classic type of Americano coffee to Rusiano. The public immediately picked up this initiative, many cafes began to list a new drink in their prices, and some even offered a discount to those visitors who ordered the usual coffee, calling it in a new way.
But this humorous episode was not without ill-wishers. Critics have begun to associate this idea with "jingoism" and with the fact that the prime minister, allegedly, wasting time on strange ideas, instead of fulfilling his official duties.
Personal life
The personal life of Dmitry Medvedev, as well as his political career, is clean, transparent and stable. With his wife, the daughter of a soldier, he met in his school years. Medvedev's wife was the first beauty, at school and in the financial and economic university, popular with young people. However, Svetlana chose a calm, intelligent and promising as her future husband. The wedding of Dmitry Medvedev and Svetlana Linnik took place in 1989.
Currently, Medvedev's wife works in Moscow and organizes public events in her native St. Petersburg. Svetlana Medvedeva became the head of the target program for working with youth "Spiritual and moral culture of the younger generation in Russia." At the initiative of Medvedev's wife, in 2008 a new holiday, "Day of Family, Love and Fidelity", was introduced.
In 1996, a son, Ilya, was born in the Medvedev family, who has been a student at MGIMO since 2012. Medvedev's son entered the university on a general basis of competition, thanks to the high performance of the Unified State Examination, where he received 94 points in English and 87 points in Russian, and also passed an additional exam with 95 points out of 100 possible.
He also tried his hand at cinema and starred in one of the episodes of the humorous television magazine Yeralash. The young man dreamed of an acting career, but, looking at himself from the side after the release of the episode, he realized that this was not his.
Now Ilya Medvedev successfully completed his undergraduate studies at MGIMO and is thinking about a career as a corporate lawyer. Ilya is the only son of Dmitry Anatolyevich, according to official sources, the politician has no other children, which does not prevent various websites and newspapers from spreading rumors about Dmitry Medvedev's personal life.
The family of the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation has a certain passion for animals. Their pets include the "first cat of the country" named Dorofey, as well as a couple of English setters, a golden retriever and a Central Asian shepherd dog.
In addition, Dmitry Anatolyevich is fond of photography and even participated in prestigious photo exhibitions. But a political career is not too conducive to his hobby. As Medvedev himself laments, given his status, if he suddenly starts taking pictures of those around him, he will at least be misunderstood.
Alumni meeting
The personal life of Dmitry Anatolyevich attracts no less attention than his political career. In 2011, the Internet literally blew up a video of poor quality in which Medvedev dances to "American Fight", and a well-known comedian makes him dance company. Video for some time became the most popular in the top materials of YouTube video hosting. The story of the dance has been beaten more than once in KVN, many jokes and video clips have also appeared on its basis.
Dmitry Medvedev did not become indignant or deny and said on Twitter that he really danced at a meeting of university graduates, which took place a year before the video appeared in the public domain. And such music for the event was chosen, according to Medvedev, in order to preserve the atmosphere of their university time, since such songs were listened to by those gathered in their youth. With age, the musical tastes of all those present naturally changed. Now Dmitry Medvedev is a big fan of rock music, he listens to Deep Purple and Linkin Park.
Dmitry Anatolyevich was defended not only by stars and politicians who complained about the lack of the very concept of privacy in Russia, but also by the public, who decided that a politician dancing at a party is quite adequate and normal, but to shoot people who are relaxed at a private party on the sly - worthy of blame.
Income
The financial condition of Medvedev also does not cease to excite the inhabitants of the country. According to the latest official figures, Medvedev's income for 2014 amounted to just under 8 million rubles, which is twice the amount of his earnings in 2013.
In 2015, the declared income of the Prime Minister increased slightly and amounted to 8.9 million rubles. There have been no significant changes in Medvedev's "property" column - he still owns an apartment of more than 350 square meters and two cars (GAZ-20 and GAZ-21).
Dmitry Medvedev now
On March 18, 2018, Vladimir Putin won again. Immediately after the elected president of the Russian Federation, the government headed by the chairman resigned.
Immediately after taking office, Vladimir Putin again offered the post of prime minister to Dmitry Medvedev. May 18 was announced to reporters.
Biography of Medvedev Dmitry Anatolyevich, career and achievements
Biography of Medvedev Dmitry Anatolyevich, career and achievements, participation in elections
1. Biography
Origin
Childhood and youth
Teaching and scientific activity
Carier start
Career in Moscow
Participation in the presidential elections in Russia
2. Presidential activity of Medvedev
Election and inauguration
Military conflict with Georgia
Analysis of the domestic political situation as a result of the conflict
3. Economic policy of Russia under Dmitry Medvedev
The financial crisis of 2008 and the domestic political situation
Protectionist measures
4. Recession. Domestic politics (2009)
5. Message from the President 2008. Constitutional Amendment Act
6. Foreign policy of Russia under Dmitry Medvedev
- "The Medvedev Doctrine"
7. Military construction
8. Estimates of the level of corruption in the country
9. Business Medvedev
10. In the field of information technology
11. Personal life and family
Hobbies
Family and personal property
Attitude towards religion
12. Criticism
13. Ranks, awards, ranks
Medvedev Dmitry Anatolievich - This Russian statesman and politician, third President of the Russian Federation, elected in the elections on March 2, 2008, Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation. PhD in Law.
From November 14, 2005 - First Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, curator of national projects. Chairman of the Board of Directors of OAO Gazprom. These posts were left by Medvedev after taking the oath of the President of the Russian Federation.
On December 10, 2007, it was announced that his candidacy for the 2008 presidential election was proposed by the United Russia, Just Russia, Civil Force parties, the Agrarian Party of Russia and was supported by the then current President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin.
On March 2, 2008, having collected 70.28% (52,530,712) of the votes, he was elected President of Russia. May 7, 2008 took office as President of Russia.
Biography
Origin
Father - Anatoly Afanasyevich Medvedev (born November 19, 1926-2004), professor at the Leningrad Technological Institute named after the Leningrad City Council (now the St. Petersburg State Technological Institute). A descendant of the peasants of the Kursk province.
Mother - Yulia Veniaminovna (born November 21, 1939), daughter of Veniamin Sergeevich Shaposhnikov and Melanya Vasilievna Kovaleva; philologist, taught at the Pedagogical Institute named after A. I. Herzen, later worked as a guide in Pavlovsk. Her ancestors - Sergey Ivanovich and Ekaterina Nikitichna Shaposhnikovs, Vasily Alexandrovich and Anfiya Filippovna Kovalyovs - come from Alekseevka, Belgorod Region.
Childhood and youth
Born on September 14, 1965 in Leningrad. He was the only child in a family that lived in the Kupchino area, the “sleeping area” of Leningrad.
Dmitry Medvedev keeps in touch with his former school. Teacher Vera Smirnova recalled: “He tried very hard, devoted all his time to studying. He was rarely seen on the street with the guys. He looked like a little old man." When Dmitry Medvedev entered the university, he met Nikolai Kropachev (now the rector of St. Petersburg State University), who described him as follows: “A good, strong student. He went in for sports, weightlifting. Even won something for the faculty. But in the main course he was the same as everyone else. Just very diligent." On the other hand, the First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma, Oleg Morozov, spoke of him as “young, energetic, it doesn’t get any better.”
Neighbors of the Medvedevs recall that they behaved respectfully with them, but at some distance. They were called the professorial family. A neighbor says that Dmitry, even when he moved to another apartment, always helped his parents. And five years ago he took me to Moscow. Anatoly Afanasyevich is now dead.
In 1973, Dmitry Medvedev went to the first grade of school number 305. The boy took this event very seriously. He rarely appeared in the yard before, but here he completely disappeared, sitting all day at his lessons. Judging by the certificate, he studied exactly in all subjects. In mathematics, he always received only “five”.
Dima was very fond of not only her subject, but also the teacher herself. Even tried to copy her handwriting. For the rest of the subjects, Dmitry also visited the "four". The boy preferred the exact sciences, but also paid attention to literature with Russian. I didn’t miss physical education, I even became the champion of the school in pulling up on the horizontal bar. School teachers recall that Dmitry was distinguished by his purposefulness.
I must say that Medvedev was a gift for a school on the outskirts - he didn’t swear, he didn’t hooligan, he studied well. But at the same time, he was not reputed to be a bore. He had many friends, and not only in his class. Medvedev met his future wife at school, she studied in a parallel class. Svetlana Linnik was from a military family. Cheerful beautiful girl, good girl. The boys ran after her in a crowd, but the blonde Sveta chose Dima. Neighbors recall that he kissed some blonde girl right in the yard. Then they wondered: what happened to the quiet boy? Who knew it was serious!
Dmitry Medvedev graduated from the Faculty of Law of Leningrad State University in 1987 and completed his postgraduate studies at Leningrad State University in 1990. From his youth he has been fond of hard rock, among his favorite bands he mentions Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin; collects records of these and other groups (in particular, he has collected a complete collection of records of the Deep Purple group). He also listens to Russian rock bands, in particular Chaif. In his student years he was fond of photography, went in for weightlifting, won competitions at the university in weightlifting in his weight category. Member of the Komsomol since 1979.
In an interview with students of the Pacific University, Medvedev said that before starting legal practice, he worked as a janitor and earned 120 rubles a month, as well as 50 rubles of an increased scholarship.
Dmitry Medvedev did not serve in the army, however, as a student at Leningrad State University, he completed a 1.5-month military training camp in Khukhoyamaki (Karelia)
Teaching and scientific activity
Since 1988 (from 1988 to 1990 as a graduate student) he taught civil and Roman law at the Faculty of Law of Leningrad State University, then St. Petersburg State University. Topic of Ph.D. thesis: "Problems of the implementation of the civil legal personality of a state enterprise", candidate of legal sciences (L., 1990). One of the authors of the repeatedly reprinted three-volume textbook "Civil Law" edited by A.P. Sergeev and Yu.K. Tolstoy, wrote 4 chapters for it (on state and municipal enterprises, credit and settlement obligations, transport law, maintenance obligations). He stopped teaching in 1999 due to moving to Moscow.
Since September 2006, he has been the head of the International Board of Trustees of the Moscow School of Management SKOLKOVO.
Carier start
From 1990 to 1997 - teaching at St. Petersburg State University. At the same time, in 1990-1995, he was an adviser to the chairman of the Leningrad City Council Anatoly Alexandrovich Sobchak, an expert of the Committee for External Relations of the St. Petersburg Mayor's Office. In Smolny, Medvedev was involved in the development and execution of transactions, contracts and various investment projects. He completed an internship in Sweden on local government issues. According to some testimonies, at that time, many mistook him for Putin's secretary and did not take him seriously. President of the National Strategy Institute Stanislav Belkovsky characterizes Dmitry Medvedev as malleable, soft, psychologically dependent - always absolutely psychologically comfortable for Vladimir Putin. According to other people, Medvedev "is not at all soft, but very domineering."
According to political analyst Alexei Mukhin, Medvedev made a major contribution to Putin's defense against charges following an investigation into the activities of the Mayor's Committee on Foreign Relations in 1992, which threatened Putin with loss of office.
Career in Moscow
In 1999, he was appointed Deputy Chief of Staff of the Government of the Russian Federation Dmitry Nikolaevich Kozak.
In 1999-2000, after the departure of Boris N. Yeltsin, he was Deputy Head of the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation; headed the campaign headquarters of V. V. Putin in the Alexander House, which previously belonged to A. Smolensky, where the German Gref center for strategic research was located; in June 2000, after the victory of Vladimir Putin in the presidential elections, Medvedev took the post of First Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration. According to political expert Stanislav Belkovsky, Alexander Voloshin and Roman Abramovich at that moment themselves proposed Medvedev's candidacy. After Voloshin left, Medvedev took his place.
In 2000-2001 - Chairman of the Board of Directors of OAO Gazprom, in 2001 - Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors of OAO Gazprom, from June 2002 to May 2008 - Chairman of the Board of Directors of OAO Gazprom.
From October 2003 to November 2005 - Head of the Administration of the President of Russia. November 12, 2003 Medvedev was appointed a member of the Security Council of the Russian Federation. In April 2004, he received the status of a permanent member of the Russian Security Council.
From October 21, 2005 to July 10, 2008 - First Deputy Council under the President of the Russian Federation for the implementation of priority national projects and demographic policy, actually began to oversee priority national projects.
On November 14, 2005, he was appointed First Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation (reappointed to this position on September 24, 2007), Mikhail Trinoga was appointed head of his secretariat, with whom Medvedev worked at Gazprom, and then in the presidential administration. From July 13, 2006 to July 10, 2008 Dmitry Medvedev - Chairman of the Presidium of the Council for the Implementation of Priority National Projects.
Participation in the presidential elections in Russia
On November 14, 2005, with the appointment of Dmitry Medvedev to the reinstated post of First Deputy Prime Minister in charge of national projects (the son of Putin's friend Boris Kovalchuk was appointed Medvedev's assistant and director of the department of national projects), his election campaign began de facto on central television channels. In the same year, his election website was registered.
In February 2006, the Russian press mentioned him as the favorite (in the eyes of President Vladimir Putin) of the informal presidential campaign.
In January 2007 Dmitry Medvedev was the main potential candidate for President of Russia. According to the Yuri Levada Analytical Center, 33% of voters were ready to vote for Medvedev in the first round of the presidential election, and 54% of voters in the second round.
In May 2007, Dmitry Medvedev cedes his positions to another candidate from the government, Sergei Ivanov. According to polls by the Levada Center, 18% of respondents were ready to vote for Medvedev in the first round, while 19% were ready to vote for Ivanov. If Ivanov and Medvedev would go to the second round together, then, according to the poll, Ivanov's chances look more preferable (55% for him).
Since October 18, 2007, when Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov abolished the practice of broadcasting government meetings for journalists, the active phase of Medvedev's election campaign began.
On December 10, 2007, V. Putin supported D. Medvedev's candidacy for the presidency of the Russian Federation. “As for the candidacy of Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev, I have known him very closely for more than 17 years, and I fully support this candidacy,” President Putin commented. The parties "United Russia", "Fair Russia", the Agrarian Party and "Civil Power" proposed Dmitry Medvedev as a single candidate for the President of Russia from their parties. At the same time, according to the current legislation, a presidential candidate can be officially nominated only from one political party.
On December 11, 2007, Dmitry Medvedev, in a statement shown on state television, said: "I appeal to him with a request to agree in principle to head the Russian government after the election of a new president of our country."
On December 17, 2007, Dmitry Medvedev was nominated as a candidate for the post of President of Russia at the congress of the United Russia party. During the secret ballot, 478 delegates voted for Medvedev, and 1 delegate voted against.
On December 20, 2007, Dmitry Medvedev notified the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation of his nomination.
The nomination of Medvedev as a candidate was supported by official representatives of a number of religious organizations: the Russian Orthodox Church, the Spiritual Board of Muslims of the European part of Russia, the Congress of Jewish Religious Communities and Organizations of Russia.
Dmitry Medvedev lost weight, for this a treadmill was installed in his office.
Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of International Economics. Peterson (The Peter G. Peterson Institute for International Economics) Anders Åslund (Anders Åslund) argued that in the light of the inter-clan struggle in the Kremlin that escalated at the end of 2007, the appointment of D. Medvedev as the only candidate from the Kremlin is by no means a foregone conclusion. He also regarded the situation that developed after the nomination of Medvedev as a candidate as “a classic situation on the eve of a coup.”
Presidential activity of Medvedev
Election and inauguration
On December 10, 2007, he was nominated as a candidate for the President of the Russian Federation from the United Russia party. On the same day, Medvedev's candidacy was supported by the Just Russia parties, the Agrarian Party of Russia and the Civil Force party. This decision was made at a meeting in the Kremlin between President Vladimir Putin, Medvedev himself, as well as Chairman of the State Duma Boris Gryzlov, Chairman of the Federation Council Sergei Mironov and the heads of the Agrarian Party Vladimir Plotnikov and the Civil Force party Mikhail Barshevsky. V.V. Putin approved Medvedev's candidacy, his official nomination as a candidate took place on December 17, 2007.
On December 20, 2007, while submitting documents to the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation, he announced that he would leave the post of Chairman of the Board of Directors of OAO Gazprom if he was elected President of Russia, in accordance with the law.
The electoral headquarters of Dmitry Medvedev was headed by the head of the Presidential Administration, Sergei Sobyanin, who went on vacation while working in it. The main themes and slogans of the campaign were:
improving the level and quality of life of the population, continuing work on priority national projects;
laying the principle of "freedom is better than lack of freedom" in the basis of state policy ... (speech at the V Krasnoyarsk Economic Forum "Russia 2008-2020. Growth Management" on February 15, 2008);
following the ideas of the Concept-2020 - development of institutions, infrastructure, innovations, investments, as well as cooperation and assistance to business;
the return of Russia to the status of a world power and its further development, integration into world relations, its own position on all key international issues, and the widespread defense of Russian interests.
On March 2, 2008, he was elected President of the Russian Federation. Remaining a member of the Government, he was the elected President of the Russian Federation until the official assumption of the office of the President of the Russian Federation.
On March 3, 2008, President Vladimir Putin signed Decree No. 295 "On the status of the newly elected and not inaugurated President of the Russian Federation" year after Vladimir Putin officially took office in 2004 - May 7, 2008 (at 12:09 Moscow time).
In honor of this event, on the same day, a number of philatelic materials under the general title “On March 2, 2008, D. A. Medvedev was elected President of the Russian Federation”, published by the Marka Publishing and Trade Center, went on sale.
In his inaugural speech, he stated that he considers the priority task in his new position to be "the further development of civil and economic freedoms, the creation of new civic opportunities." He confirmed this course by signing his first decrees that directly relate to the social sphere. In particular, the first document was a federal law providing for the provision of housing at the expense of the federal budget to all veterans of the Great Patriotic War who need to improve their living conditions until May 2010. The next decree “On Measures for the Development of Housing Construction” provides for the creation of the Federal Fund for Assistance to the Development of Housing Construction as part of the modernization of the relevant infrastructure. Its main goal will be to promote the development of predominantly individual residential construction: it is seen as a transitional link in the formation of an affordable housing market and the future use of federally owned land plots as areas for subsequent development of private property. In addition, in order to promote the systemic modernization of higher professional education based on the integration of science, education and production, the training of qualified personnel to meet the long-term needs of an innovative economy, the Decree “On Federal Universities” plans to continue forming a network of federal universities that provide a high level of educational process, research and technological developments. As part of the decree, the President instructed the Government to consider the establishment of the Far Eastern Federal University, along with the already established Siberian and Southern Federal Universities.
According to a VTsIOM poll conducted shortly after Medvedev's inauguration, 86% of Russians knew that he was already President; 10% considered President V. V. Putin; 1% of the respondents considered Medvedev as Chairman.
Military conflict with Georgia
On the night of August 7-8, 2008, Georgian troops began heavy shelling of the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali and surrounding areas; a few hours later, the city was stormed by the forces of Georgian armored vehicles and infantry. As a result of the attack, more than ten Russian servicemen of the peacekeeping forces were killed, and several dozen were wounded. The official reason for the attack on Tskhinvali, according to the Georgian side, was the violation of the ceasefire by South Ossetia, which, in turn, claims that Georgia was the first to open fire.
According to a number of reports in several Russian newspapers, as well as allegations by Georgian intelligence released a month later, in September 2008, separate units of the Russian 58th Army were transferred to South Ossetia starting in the early morning of August 7, 2008. However, according to Russian data, as well as reports from a number of Western media and politicians, the Georgian side's claims about the early deployment of Russian troops are false. In the evening of the same day, the Georgian and South Ossetian sides of the conflict accused each other of violating the terms of the ceasefire.
On the morning of August 8, President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili, in a televised address, announced the “liberation” of the Tsinagar and Znauri regions, the villages of Dmenisi, Gromi and Khetagurovo, as well as most of Tskhinvali, by the power structures of Georgia; he accused Russia of bombing Georgian territory, calling it "classic international aggression"; General mobilization was announced in Georgia. On the same day, the President of South Ossetia, Eduard Kokoity, reported numerous casualties among the civilians of South Ossetia and accused Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili of genocide against the Ossetian people.
On August 8, 2008, President Medvedev stated: “Tonight in South Ossetia, Georgian troops, in fact, committed an act of aggression against Russian peacekeepers and civilians. We will not allow the death of our compatriots with impunity. The perpetrators will be punished.”
Medvedev later noted: “Ultimately, for some time we still had hopes that this was still some kind of provocation that would not be carried through to the end. But at the moment when the rocket guns really started working, tanks started firing, and I was informed about the death of our citizens, including peacekeepers, I didn’t hesitate for a minute and gave the order to defeat and retaliate.”
On August 9, President D. Medvedev began a meeting with Minister of Defense A. Serdyukov and Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces N. Makarov with the words: “Our peacekeepers and units attached to them are currently carrying out an operation to force the Georgian side to peace.” No information about the official document (decree or order of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief), on the basis of which the 58th Army and other units began operations, was made public; there was also no mention of such a document in the official statements. According to the statement of the Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, Colonel-General A. Nogovitsyn dated August 9, 2008, Russia was not at that moment in a state of war with Georgia: “All units of the 58th Army that arrived in Tskhinvali were sent here to provide assistance to the Russian peacekeeping battalion, which suffered heavy losses as a result of shelling of its positions by parts of the Georgian army.
On August 12, Medvedev announced that he had decided to end the operation to "force the Georgian authorities to peace." On the same day, at a joint press conference with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, following Vladimir Putin, he called the actions of the Georgian army in the zone of the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict "genocide" and "ethnic cleansing" and insulted the leadership of Georgia.
The military actions of Russia on the territory of a neighboring state caused a negative assessment and criticism of most Western states. A possible violation of Russian law in the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation outside the country (Article 102 of the Constitution of Russia, etc.) allowed the former aide to the President of the Russian Federation Georgy Satarov to suggest at the end of August: “Medvedev, as president, sent troops into the zone of Georgian Ossetian conflict without the sanction of the Federation Council is a flagrant violation of the Constitution. Therefore, I can offer this plot: Putin gives Medvedev the opportunity to make a bunch of mistakes, and then arranges impeachment and organizes new presidential elections, it will not be difficult for him. If Putin were a true comrade, he would not have left Medvedev alone in this situation.”
During the Russian-Georgian armed conflict, Dmitry Medvdev met twice in an official setting with the president of unrecognized Abkhazia and once with the president of unrecognized South Ossetia. On June 26, Medvedev received in the Kremlin President of the Republic of Abkhazia Sergei Bagapsh, and on August 14 (after the end of active hostilities in Georgia) he met in the Kremlin with President of the Republic of Abkhazia Sergei Bagapsh and President of the Republic of South Ossetia Eduard Kokoity. During the meeting, Kokoity and Bagapsh signed six principles for the settlement of the Georgian-South Ossetian and Georgian-Abkhazian conflicts, previously developed by Medvedev and Sarkozy; the presidents of the unrecognized republics were informed that Russia would support any decision on the status of South Ossetia and Abkhazia that the peoples of these republics would make.
As it turned out in October 2008, based on the analysis of satellite images of the outskirts of Tskhinvali, additional destruction of civilian objects occurred from August 10 to August 19, 2008, that is, after the city was occupied by Russian troops: hundreds of houses were burned in ethnically Georgian villages in South Ossetia.
Analysis of the domestic political situation as a result of the conflict
Comparing the behavior of Medvedev and Putin during the conflict in Georgia has led Western observers to ask “who is in charge in the Kremlin” and come up with the answer: “The current conflict has confirmed what has become increasingly clear in recent weeks: Putin continues to be in charge.” Financial Times commentator Philip Stevens, in an issue dated August 29, 2008, called Medvedev "the nominal president of Russia" (Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's notional president). The Russian Newsweek magazine of September 1, 2008 and the Vlast magazine of the same date came to the same conclusion. The latter also noted:
“Another notable consequence of the Georgian conflict can be considered the final collapse of hopes for the liberalization of the domestic political course that appeared in a certain part of Russian society after the election of Dmitry Medvedev as president.”
Commentators in the Russian magazine The New Times on September 1, 2008 expressed a similar assessment of the situation in the country: “Inside the country, it seems that the choice between reforms and mobilization has been made in favor of the latter. Of course, members of the ruling duumvirate believe that some third way is possible, a kind of “mobilization modernization” in conditions of “light” isolation from key states and institutions of the Western world. And - in the absence of institutions within the country. Of course, this is an illusion."
It is noteworthy that while analyzing the political and economic situation in the country after the conflict with Georgia, Anders Aslund, in his article dated September 3, never mentions D. Medvedev and speaks of V. Putin as the only leader of Russia: “August 8 stands out as a fatal day for Russia. It marks Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's greatest mistake. Putin is turning Russia into a bandit state.” The economist Judy Shelton, author of The Coming Soviet Crash, published in 1989, argued the same thing in The Market Will Punish Putinism, published in the Wall Street Journal on September 3, 2008: learn one thing: sometimes the invisible hand of the market strikes back.”
The French magazine Le Point of August 31, 2008 wrote that “in the Kremlin, as in the presidential apparatus, Vladimir Putin is still called “chief”. And during the Georgian crisis, it was the prime minister who “resolved” the situation, and not Dmitry Medvedev.” Ekho Moskvy columnist Yevgenia Albats said in September of that year that "although Medvedev gets press attention, he looks like Putin's press secretary."
The former deputy secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation (1996-1997) B. A. Berezovsky said in November 2008: “There is no tandem, there is a jester and a dictator who, as he was in power, remained. What is happening now is a great scam."
Political scientist Lilia Shevtsova wrote in the Vedomosti newspaper on September 17: “The war between Russia and Georgia in 2008 was the final chord in the formation of the anti-Western vector of the state and at the same time the final touch in the consolidation of the new system. In the 1990s, this system existed as a hybrid that combined incompatible things - democracy and autocracy, economic reforms and state expansion, partnership with the West and suspicion of it. From now on, the Russian system becomes unambiguous, and there are no more doubts about its qualities and its trajectory. The August events confirmed one simple truth: foreign policy in Russia has become a tool for implementing the domestic political agenda. The August war makes it meaningless to discuss the question of who rules Russia and what are the relations within the ruling tandem Medvedev-Putin. Medvedev put on a Putin jacket and became military president, and it was he who had to close the era in the development of the country, begun by Mikhail Gorbachev.
The Financial Times of September 20, 2008 noted what it saw as a change in the social contract between Russia's wealthy class and power group: “Putinism was based on the understanding that if the bigwigs played by the Kremlin's rules, they would prosper. Recent military adventurism has undermined this great bargain. The oligarchs have been hit hard by the market crash; the aid package came only after a worried business elite complained to the Kremlin. After the recent upheaval, the loyalty of the oligarchs is no longer taken for granted.”
President Medvedev's speech on September 19, 2008 in the Kremlin "at a meeting with representatives of public organizations", according to political scientist V. Nikonov, "was addressed to elite groups within the country", worried about the prospect of militarization of public consciousness. The President, in particular, said: “No new external circumstances - and even more so pressure on Russia from outside - will not change our strategic line towards building a free, progressive and democratic state and society. All tasks related to the development of the economy, the expansion of entrepreneurial, creative and personal freedom will be resolved without delay, without referring to the fact that the country is in a special situation, "there are enemies around."
According to the FOM poll conducted on August 23-24, 2008, according to 80% of Russians surveyed in various regions of the country, "modern Russia can be called a great power"; 69% believed that Russia's foreign policy is "very effective"; the vast majority of survey participants - 82% - said that "Russia should strive to become the most influential country in the world." Analyzing the data of the FOM poll, the FT of September 23, 2008 wrote: “Russian society, which for the most part supported the war, has become a bastion of tough politics. Polls suggest that this could prevent the few politicians who are trying to reconnect with the West from supporting economic and political integration with the West in the interests of Western countries.”
A number of human rights activists and liberally oriented journalists and economists, as a result of the Russian-Georgian conflict, noted a significant increase in government pressure on freedom of speech and restrictions on human rights activities.
Priority national projects
A special block of work is priority national projects, the activities of which, from the first days of preparation and implementation, have been carried out under the leadership of Dmitry Medvedev.
Accordingly, almost all ministries, one way or another, are connected with the implementation of national projects.
It should be noted that the system of control and management of national projects is specific to Russia in terms of its effectiveness.
However, in addition to the administrative structures, a significant part of the control over projects is carried out personally by Dmitry Medvedev - on constant business trips around the country, regular conference calls and meetings not only with officials, but also with citizens for whom these projects are being implemented.
Dmitry Medvedev is Chairman of the Board of Directors of OAO Gazprom, a strategic company and the world's leading supplier of energy resources.
From the moment he joined Gazprom, gradual, accurate, but effective work began to optimize foreign economic activity and increase the company's social role within the country. In fact, "preferential friendly" deliveries of Russian gas for next to nothing have been stopped. The company is increasingly entering into partnerships with foreign contractors.
In addition, Gazprom is consistently carrying out gasification of the country, providing access to "blue fuel" in more than 300 settlements a year.
Also, it should be noted the markedly increased activity of the company in the social sphere.
For example, the Gazprom for Children program.
Dmitry Medvedev: "We hope that in 2006-2007, with the help of Gazprom, hundreds of sports facilities located in various regions of the country will be reconstructed. The estimated volume of investments allocated for these purposes in 2006-2007 will be about four billion rubles."
Economic policy of Russia under Dmitry Medvedev
The financial crisis of 2008 and the domestic political situation
Medvedev's public demand on July 31, 2008 to "stop making business a nightmare" - days after Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's harsh statements to Mechel's management on July 24 - was seen by some observers as being in "direct contradiction" with each other. According to B. Nemtsov, on August 1, 2008, “for the first time, perhaps, the president spoke out harshly and unambiguously against Putin’s line.”
Magazine "Expert" D "for August 2008 wrote:
“In connection with the Mechel case, there has been talk that serious disagreements have emerged in relations between Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin. To the extent that the president can dismiss the government, which will lead to a clash between the two factions and a political crisis.”
After the conflict in Georgia, the Russian stock exchange experienced one of the most powerful falls in quotations in the last decade. Within just one day, the share price fell nearly 6 percent. Investors' biggest fear is that a new era of military confrontation between Russia and its neighbors will begin. Meanwhile, Medvedev's ambitious reform agenda has been overtaken by Putin's ambitions. Upon coming to power, Medvedev spoke of the need to end Russia's tradition of "legal nihilism," extortion and corruption. As early as last month, the president told Russian officials to stop “nightmareing” businessmen with petty niggles and demands for bribes. He also promised to reform the judiciary and property rights. But once Medvedev shifted into first gear and felt more confident as president, he found history grabbing him by the throat in the form of Putin and a festering little post-Soviet conflict that erupted and turned into a full-blown war.
The Financial Times of September 18, 2008, in its extensive material devoted to the analysis of the Russian economy, saw the primary reason for the collapse of the Russian stock market, liquidity crisis and capital outflow in August - September 2008 in the country's internal problems: the Russian financial sector was most affected by credit crisis in the USA. For the Moscow stock exchanges and banks, the international situation exacerbated the existing crisis situation, which was explained mainly by internal factors, that is, the August Russian-Georgian war.
The newspaper highlighted the milestones of the path that led to the crisis: the rise of the market in May, when, after the election of Dmitry Medvedev as president, a flow of investments began to flow into the country; the appearance at the end of May of the first indicators of a future fall (an attack on the British side in the Anglo-Russian joint venture TNK-BP); forced departure from the country in July of the company's CEO, Robert Dudley; Putin's statement at the same time in relation to the head of the Mechel company, Igor Zyuzin, which served as an impetus for panic among investors; ensuing antitrust investigations into other large steel companies. The finale, according to the publication, was the military campaign against Georgia: “The war in Georgia was the last straw for many. Fear of the Kremlin's capricious and capricious behavior led to an exodus of investors from the country; according to experts, in the first few weeks after the outbreak of hostilities, investments worth twenty-one billion dollars left Russia. Additional negative factors were the general instability of world stock markets and the fall in oil prices, on which the financial well-being of Russia depends. On September 16, Alexei Kudrin said that if oil costs less than $70 per barrel, the federal budget will come to a deficit balance.
A number of other foreign publications also assessed the situation in the same way.
On September 19, 2008, the international rating agency Standard & Poor's revised the outlook for the sovereign credit ratings of the Russian Federation from "Positive" to "Stable"; long-term credit ratings for obligations in foreign currency (BBB +) and for obligations in national currency (А- ), as well as short-term sovereign credit ratings (A-2) were affirmed.
On October 1, the head of the Russian Government, V. Putin, placed all responsibility for the financial crisis on the US government and the “system”, saying: “Everything that is happening today in the field of economy and finance, as you know, began in the USA. This whole crisis that many economies have faced and, what is most sad, the inability to make adequate decisions, is no longer the irresponsibility of specific individuals, but the irresponsibility of the system. A system that, as you know, claimed leadership. But we see that it is not only unable to provide leadership, but even unable to make adequate, absolutely necessary decisions to overcome the crisis.”
At the same meeting of the Government, it was announced that a decision had been made to sharply increase the tax burden on the payroll funds of enterprises: from 2010, the single social tax (UST) at a rate of 26% should be replaced by three insurance premiums with a total amount of 34% of the payroll fund. The decision to cancel the UST caused a negative reaction from Russian business; On October 2, 2008, Delovaya Rossiya addressed Putin with a proposal to declare a moratorium on any tax innovations until the end of the financial crisis on world markets. Igor Nikolaev, Director of the FBK Strategic Analysis Department, noted that raising the effective rate from 20-22% to about 30% is “very much”: “This is a very bad decision, problems in the stock market and in the economy as a whole are complemented by powerful disincentives. We will not only reduce the rate of economic growth, but we will completely reset it as early as next year. If it would be possible to choose the most unfortunate moment to increase the tax burden, then it is chosen.”
The economic observer for NG on October 6, noting the secret nature of the decision on the UST, wrote "It is not clear why it was necessary to carry out such a painful pension reform now, in the midst of the crisis, and not two years earlier, when everything was fine.".
On October 6, 2008, there was a record-breaking fall in the RTS index in the entire history of the Russian stock market: by 19.1% in a day to 866.39 points; in London, where trading did not stop, Russian "blue chips" fell by 30-50%.
On October 7, 2008, President Medvedev, after a meeting with the economic bloc of the government, said that the state would provide Russian banks with a subordinated loan in the amount of up to 950 billion rubles for a period of at least five years. The news did not change the general trend in the markets; oil and gas giants (LUKOIL, Rosneft, TNK-BP and Gazprom) requested support from the government - to pay off debt on external borrowings
On October 8, 2008, President Medvedev, speaking at the Conference on World Politics in Evian (France), outlined his thoughts on the nature and lessons of the economic crisis: in his opinion, the crisis "was caused, first of all, by the economic "selfishness" of a number of countries." He proposed a program of 5 points, the first of which was: “in the new conditions, it is necessary to streamline and bring into the system both national and international regulatory institutions.” On the same day, it was reported that Russian companies began to reduce - contrary to the promises of officials and analysts' forecasts, as well as the stoppage of GAZ conveyors and a decrease in the number of working days at KamAZ.
On October 9, the mass media in Russia for the first time reported on the "output of the crisis to the people"; Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, at a meeting with the parliamentary faction of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, said that “trust in the United States as the leader of the free world and free economy, trust in Wall Street as the center of this trust has been undermined, I think, forever. There will be no return to the previous situation.” On the same day, the Argumenty Nedeli weekly published an article entitled “Why should V. Putin “burn out” in the fire of the crisis?” stated the point of view that, based on the need for someone to answer the question "Who is responsible for this?" and the fact that “in the last week or two in the State Duma, the Federation Council and the business community, they started talking about the need to save V. Putin” (“His authority and charisma should not fall victim to the global economic crisis”), “V. It is better for Putin to entrust the post of prime minister and not engage in “manual management” of the financial crisis and housing and communal services, while retaining “political commanding heights in his hands as the leader of the nation and the ruling party.” According to the publication, "the search for a candidate for the post of prime minister has already begun", in connection with which the publication named the names of State Duma Chairman B. Gryzlov and Finance Minister A. Kudrin as candidates for "becoming" extreme "". The name of the latter figured in the Russian press also as a possible candidate for resignation, which was called for on October 9 by the leader of the Communist Party faction at a meeting with Prime Minister V. Putin.
On the same day, in an interview with Radio Liberty, the economist, former adviser to the President of Russia (2000-2005) A.N. Illarionov said, speaking about the impact of the financial crisis on the real economy: “The fact is that in the modern world everything is connected. If the interim Russian president declares that he is not afraid of the Cold War, then investors, both foreign and Russian, draw the appropriate conclusion for themselves. And if he is not afraid of the Cold War, then they are. They are afraid of both “cold” and “hot”, whatever war. And they make a decision for themselves and start withdrawing funds from the Russian Federation, from Russian projects. They believe that in a war they have a very high risk of losing everything, and they stop their projects. And indeed, this chain extends to the same construction market, to mortgages, because these projects are designed for long-term payback.”
In connection with the adoption on October 10 by the State Duma of a number of bills and the statement of V. Putin that the Development Bank (Vnesheconombank), in which he is the Chairman of the Supervisory Board, will act as an operator for the placement of state funds (including funds from the National Wealth Fund of Russia) into Russian shares and bonds, Russian Newsweek of October 13, 2008 reported that VEB, already secured by a loan, takes shares of Russian enterprises as collateral, which creates a "risk of nationalization" and the redistribution of property. According to the former Chairman of the Government M. Kasyanov on October 15, 2008, "the crisis is a reason for the redistribution of property." The entrepreneur and State Duma deputy of the fourth convocation A.E. Lebedev, political scientist A. Belkovsky also spoke about the danger of corrupt use of the scheme proposed by the government; an editorial in the FT on October 16, 2008 also spoke of the threat of an escalation of inter-factional struggle in the ruling group and big business, which would take place at the expense of "the interests of ordinary citizens." On October 15, the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP) opposed the government's idea to attract shares of public companies for the purchase of shares of the Development Bank.
The release on October 21, 2008 of the former Deputy Minister of Finance of the Russian Federation S. A. Storchak from custody was regarded by commentators as a victory for the economic wing of the government over the “siloviki”.
The speech of the leader of the United Russia party V. Putin on November 20 at the 10th party congress with the program of anti-crisis economic stimulus was regarded by some commentators as a declaration of his intention to return to the Kremlin "as the savior of the nation." Vladimir Milov assessed the measures announced by V. Putin as "imitation".
On December 4, 2008, after Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's "straight line", which some regarded as a hoax, Putin told the BBC correspondent that the next presidential election would be held in 2012 and that his cooperation with Medvedev was an "effective tandem"; the broadcasting corporation took the fact that the "direct line" was conducted by Putin (and not the President) as evidence that "Putin has hardly given up real power since leaving the presidency."
According to Rosstat, published in January 2009, the scale of the decline in real disposable incomes of the population in December almost doubled compared to November, reaching 11.6% (against December of the previous year), real wages fell by 4.6% (+7.2 % in November), the average monthly growth rate of the unemployed in the 4th quarter reached 23% (against the same period in 2007) against 5.6% in the 3rd quarter.
Protectionist measures
In violation of international obligations (to refrain from applying protectionist measures for 12 months - paragraph 13 of the G20 Summit Declaration), adopted on November 14, 2008 by President Medvedev at the anti-crisis summit of the G20 countries, on January 12, 2009, in accordance with the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation "On Amendments to the Customs Tariff for Certain Motor Vehicles”, signed on December 5, 2008 by Prime Minister V.V. Putin, new, increased customs duties on foreign-made trucks and cars imported into Russia came into force. The government's decision triggered mass protests in the cities of the Far East, Siberia and other regions in December 2008, which continued in early January 2009, mostly under political slogans.
On January 12, 2009, a representative of the European Commission stated that the actions of the Russian government contradicted the bilateral agreement of 2004 on joining the World Trade Organization: "The European Commission seriously regrets this position."
On January 28, 2009, in Davos, V. Putin said in his speech, in particular: “We cannot afford to slide into isolationism and unbridled economic egoism. At the G20 summit, the leaders of the world's leading economies agreed to refrain from erecting barriers to world trade and the movement of capital. Russia shares these views. And even if in a crisis a certain increase in protectionism turns out to be inevitable, which, unfortunately, we are seeing today, then here we all need to know a sense of proportion.
Recession. Domestic politics (2009)
According to data released in January 2009 by Rosstat, in December 2008 the decline in industrial production in Russia reached 10.3% compared to December 2007 (in November - 8.7%), which was the deepest decline in production over the past decade; In general, in the 4th quarter of 2008, the decline in industrial production amounted to 6.1% compared to the same period in 2007. On January 30, Andrei Illarionov assessed the pace of decline in November and December 2008 as "unparalleled in modern Russian economic history."
On January 22, 2009, new calculations of the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation were published, according to which Russia's GDP in 2009 will decrease by 0.2% (instead of growth by 2.4% according to the previous forecast); the forecast for a drop in industrial production in 2009 was increased to 5.7% (against a decline of 3.2% in the previous forecast); investments in fixed capital in 2009 will decrease by 1.7% (against the previously expected growth of 1.4%). On February 17, the Ministry of Economic Development adjusted its forecast for 2009 to minus 2.2% of GDP and minus 7.4% for industry, leaving the forecast for oil prices unchanged - $41 per barrel. The new version of the forecast will require another recalculation of the federal budget for 2009.
On February 16, 2008, international news agencies, in connection with the removal of 4 regional leaders by Medvedev, quoted analysts who saw in such a step, as well as some others, Medvedev's desire to get out of "Putin's shadow." “Izvestia” of February 16, 2009, in its subtitle to the material on the dismissal of governors, presented the personnel decision as the will of the “prime minister”, although the article itself stated: “Medvedev demonstrates that he is not going to“ freeze ”the political elites at all and, over time,“ Putin “The regional composition can easily thin out.” Analytical materials in Nezavisimaya Gazeta on February 19, 2009 were devoted to the opinions circulating in the political environment "about some differences in the tandem [Medvedev-Putin] specifically on regional chiefs," as well as some other issues of personnel policy.
"NG" dated March 2, 2009, analyzing internal documents of the Government and the Presidential Administration in connection with the "refusal to execute" by the Ministry of Finance, headed by Kudrin, the instructions of the President dated October 19, 2008 to change the system of taxation of the coal industry as soon as possible (introduce a differentiated tax rate), concluded that in the conflict between Medvedev and Kudrin, Putin "invisibly took the side of the Minister of Finance."
Message from the President 2008. Constitutional Amendment Act
Scheduled for October 23, 2008, the announcement of the annual message of the President of Russia to the Federal Assembly was postponed indefinitely; it was reported that Medvedev intended to introduce anti-crisis amendments into it. On the same day, the media reported, with reference to the opinion of experts, that “the global financial crisis has already begun to affect the lives of Russian citizens”
In a message to the Federal Assembly, read on November 5, 2008 in the Georgievsky Hall of the Grand Kremlin Palace (all the previous ones were read in the Kremlin's Marble Hall), he criticized the United States and proposed amendments to the Russian Constitution (which he called "correction of the Constitution") that would extend the powers of the president and the State Duma up to six and five years, respectively; the president's new proposal was "received with a prolonged standing ovation". The President "warned" those "who hope to provoke an aggravation of the political situation": "We will not allow inciting social and ethnic hatred, deceiving people and involving them in illegal actions." According to an unnamed “source close to the presidential administration” in the Vedomosti newspaper on November 6, “the plan for extending the terms of office was formed back in 2007 under Putin” and provided for the latter’s return to the Kremlin for a longer period; the source suggested that under such a scenario, "Medvedev may resign early, citing a change in the Constitution." Similar opinions were expressed by government sources in the November 10 Russian Newsweek magazine. Vladimir Putin's press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, told the Vedomosti newspaper: "I see no reason for Putin to return to the presidency next year, because in 2009 the term of the incumbent president will continue."
On the evening of November 7, the leader of the United Russia party, Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation V. Putin, at a meeting with the leadership of the party, which was also attended by the First Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation V. Surkov and the head of the apparatus of the Government of the Russian Federation S. Sobyanin, said: “I think that United Russia should support the position of the President and, at the expense of its political resources, ensure the passage of the President's proposals through the federal parliament, and, if necessary, through the legislative assemblies of the regions.” The proposal provoked protests from the opposition and human rights activists.
On November 11, 2008, President Medvedev, in accordance with Article 134 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation and Article 3 of the Federal Law “On the procedure for the adoption and entry into force of amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation”, submitted to the State Duma draft laws on amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation: “On changing the term Powers of the President of the Russian Federation and the State Duma” and “On the control powers of the State Duma in relation to the Government of the Russian Federation”.
On November 13, 2008, some Russian media reported that, according to some deputies of the State Duma, at the congress of United Russia on November 20 of the same year, V. Putin could join the party and become Chairman of the State Duma; the possibility of re-elections to the State Duma was not ruled out.
On November 14, 2008, during the discussion of draft laws on amendments, State Duma deputy Viktor Ilyukhin (KPRF) noted: “The question arises: why today? Why such a hurry? The president has another 3.5 years of rule ahead of him, and we have to decide today on the extension of powers?”
On November 18, President Medvedvev, answering journalists' questions in Izhevsk, said that he thought about the need to change the terms of office of the head of state and the State Duma a few years ago; he also said: “To be frank, I believe that Russia should not be a parliamentary republic, for us it’s just like death, but, nevertheless, it still strengthens the powers of the State Duma and provides additional levers of control over those decisions that accepted by the government."
On November 19, during the passage of amendments to the Constitution in the State Duma in the second reading, along with the faction of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, which voted against, the LDPR faction did not participate in the voting due to the refusal by the Committee on Constitutional Legislation of the State Duma to submit the constitutional initiatives of the Liberal Democratic Party for discussion.
On December 30, 2008, the Amendment Law was signed by Medvedev and entered into force the next day.
The American organization Freedom House argued that the increase in the term of presidential and parliamentary powers made Russia "an even more unfree country"
Russian foreign policy under Dmitry Medvedev
"The Medvedev Doctrine"
The primacy of the fundamental principles of international law.
Rejection of the unipolar world and the construction of multipolarity.
Avoid isolation and confrontation with other countries.
Protecting the life and dignity of Russian citizens, "wherever they are."
Protection of Russia's interests in "friendly regions".
On July 6-8, 2009, Dmitry Medvedev held talks with Barack Obama during his official working visit to Moscow. During the visit, bilateral agreements were signed, including on the transit of US military cargo to Afghanistan through Russian territory, and guidelines for the reduction of strategic offensive weapons were outlined.
In September 2009, the Obama administration announced its decision not to deploy missile defense (ABM) assets in the Czech Republic and Poland. Although it was stated that this decision was not related to the position of Russia, which was concerned about these prospects, this decision created favorable ground for Dmitry Medvedev's visit to the United States, scheduled for September 22, 2009. During bilateral negotiations between Presidents Medvedev and Obama on September 24, the Russian side agreed with that "sanctions could be applied to Iran if it does not agree to curtail its nuclear program." Dmitry Medvedev also announced that a new nuclear arms reduction treaty could be ready by December 2009, and that a decision had been made to abandon the deployment of missile systems in the Kaliningrad region
On August 26, 2008, Dmitry Medvedev signed decrees "On the recognition of the Republic of Abkhazia" and "On the recognition of the Republic of South Ossetia", according to which the Russian Federation recognized both republics "as a sovereign and independent state", undertook to establish diplomatic relations with each of them and conclude an agreement on friendship, cooperation and mutual assistance. The recognition by Russia of the independence of the regions of Georgia caused the condemnation of most Western countries; was not supported by any other CIS state.
Five days later, on August 31, 2008, in an interview with three Russian TV channels in Sochi, Medvedev announced five "positions" on which he intends to build the foreign policy of the Russian Federation. The first of the “positions” he named read: “Russia recognizes the primacy of the fundamental principles of international law that determine relations between civilized peoples.” The fifth "position" proclaimed: "Russia, like other countries of the world, has regions in which privileged interests are located. In these regions are countries with which we are traditionally bound by friendly, kind-hearted relations, historically special relations. We will work very carefully in these regions and develop such friendly relations with these states, with our close neighbors.” The September 3 Italian newspaper La Repubblica, in its article "New Yalta: Today's Rulers and Spheres of Influence," interpreted Medvedev's latest "position" as Russia's claim to a zone that "spreads part of the former Soviet territories inhabited by Russian minorities." The day before this article, Dmitry Medvedev expressed his attitude towards the leadership of the Republic of Georgia: “As for the Georgian authorities, the current regime has gone bankrupt for us, President Mikheil Saakashvili does not exist for us, he is a ‘political corpse’.”
In his September 10, 2008 Wall Street Journal article "Russia's Next Target May Be Ukraine," Leon Aron, director of the Russian Studies Program and fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, believed that Russia's "invasion of Georgia and continued occupation of the country" was not an isolated incident. , but "the first manifestation of a different and deeply disturbing doctrine of national security and foreign policy." In Newsweek of September 1 of the same year, Josef Joffe, senior fellow at Stanford's Institute for International Studies, wrote of the Kremlin's new foreign policy under President Medvedev:
“Forty years ago, the Brezhnev Doctrine proclaimed: “Socialist countries cannot cease to be socialist,” and this became the pretext for the invasion that crushed the “Prague Spring.” Will we now get Putin's doctrine: "what belonged to Russia cannot cease to belong to it"?
As a result of the conflict between Moscow and Washington over Georgia, according to observers, "Moscow's foreign policy activity has noticeably shifted towards Latin America." The visit of a Russian delegation headed by Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin in mid-September 2008 pursued not only issues of economic cooperation, but also the development of allied relations with Venezuela and Cuba, which, from Moscow’s point of view, “would be a worthy response to the activation of the United States in the post-Soviet space. » The Vedomosti newspaper of September 18 quoted the opinion of a Russian expert: "The development of military cooperation with Venezuela is Moscow's response to the support of Georgia by the Americans."
On September 18, 2008, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice delivered a speech on US-Russian relations at the German Marshall Fund's Washington office, saying, in part: “The Russian invasion of Georgia has not and will not achieve any lasting strategic goal. The United States and Europe must stand up to this kind of behavior and anyone who encourages it. For the sake of our future - and for the sake of the future of the people of Russia, who deserve better relations with the rest of the world - the United States and Europe must not allow Russian aggression to bear fruit. Not in Georgia, not anywhere else. Already, the Russian leadership sees a hint of what the future could be if they persist in their aggressive behavior. In contrast to Georgia's position, Russia's international reputation is worse than at any time since 1991. And we are charting the future we want with our friends and allies on the American continents, from which we were sometimes removed during the Cold War. Russia's anachronistic demonstration of its military power will not reverse this course of history. Russia is free to determine its relations with sovereign countries. And they are free to determine their relationship with Russia - including the countries of the Western Hemisphere. But we are convinced that our ties with our neighbors who are striving for better education and health care, better jobs, and better housing will not be eroded by a few aging Blackjack bombers visiting one of the few Latin American autocracies that is itself left behind. in an increasingly peaceful, prosperous and democratic hemisphere."
Medvedev's absentee response to the US Secretary of State, according to observers, was some of the theses of his speech, which he delivered the next day in the Kremlin "at a meeting with representatives of public organizations", at which he accused NATO of provoking a conflict in the Caucasus and the United States of interfering in internal affairs of Russia, saying, in particular: “the urgency of concluding a large European treaty after the events in the Caucasus is becoming increasingly high. And this is understood even by those who, in behind-the-scenes conversations, in personal conversations with me, said that nothing was needed: NATO will provide everything, NATO will decide everything. What did NATO decide, what did it provide? Only provoked a conflict, nothing more. I open my “favorite” Internet this morning, I see: our American friends say that we will continue to support teachers, doctors, scientists, trade union leaders, and judges in the Russian Federation. The last one for me was just something outstanding. This is what is meant, are they going to feed our judges or something, will they support corruption? And if we are talking about joint programs, then they are usually implemented with those countries with which there is a proximity in the perception of the main world processes. Otherwise, if it goes on like this, they will soon select presidents for us.”
On October 2, 2008, during a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel as part of the Petersburg Dialogue forum, he once again called for the creation of a "new legally binding treaty on European security." Touching upon the topic of the global financial crisis, he expressed the opinion that "the system that has developed today does not fulfill any tasks of maintaining the international financial system in a balanced state." Medvedev also emphasized the impossibility of the world returning to the Cold War.
On October 8, 2008, speaking at the World Policy Conference in Evian (France), he criticized the global foreign policy pursued by the US government “after September 11, 2001” and after “the overthrow of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan”, when, in his opinion, “a series of unilateral actions began,” noting, in particular: “At that time, unfortunately, due to the desire of the United States of America to “consolidate” its global dominance, a historic chance was missed to de-ideologize international life and build a truly democratic world order. NATO expansion is carried out with some special passion. Today the admission of Georgia and Ukraine to NATO is being actively discussed. The Alliance is bringing its military infrastructure very close to the borders of our country and is drawing new "dividing lines" in Europe - now along our western and southern borders. And it is quite natural, no matter what they say, that we consider these actions as actions directed against us.
The speech contained "concrete elements" of a new European Security Treaty, which, according to Medvedev, is designed to "create a unified and reliable system of comprehensive security."
In a message to the Federal Assembly, read out on November 5, 2008, for the first time he announced specific measures that he "has in mind to take, in particular, to effectively counter the new elements of the global missile defense system stubbornly imposed by the current US administration in Europe": refusal to eliminate three missile regiments, the intention to deploy Iskander missile systems in the Kaliningrad region and to carry out electronic suppression of the American missile defense system. Medvedev's statements drew criticism from the US government and other NATO members; Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said, in part: "I would not attach too much importance to this type of declaration." Moscow's military plans were also criticized by the European Union and the Western media, some of which perceived them as a challenge to US President-elect B. Obama. Observers who wrote about Medvedev's statements as "an attempt to publicly blackmail Obama" noted that by doing so, Moscow makes it much more difficult for him to abandon plans to deploy missile defense. In this regard, political scientist A. Goltz suggested that Medvedev “most likely pursued the goal of complicating and exacerbating the already tense relations between Russia and the United States as much as possible in the days following the election of Obama,” which is beneficial for the Russian “siloviki” party.
On November 13, 2008, while in Tallinn at a meeting of NATO defense ministers, US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates rejected Medvedev's earlier proposal to abandon the deployment of missiles on Russia's western borders, provided that US missile defense elements were not deployed in Poland and the Czech Republic; Gates also said, in part: “To be honest, I'm not sure what the missiles in Kaliningrad will be for. After all, the only real future threat on Russia's borders is Iran, and I don't think Iskander missiles can reach Iran from there. This question, obviously, is between us and the Russians. Why they threaten to target European countries with missiles is a mystery to me.” The day before, Gates assured his colleagues in the Baltics, Ukraine and other neighboring countries of Russia that America is firmly on guard of their interests.
On November 15, 2008, President Medvedev at the G20 summit in Washington proposed to completely rebuild all the institutions of the financial system; the new structure, according to the President of the Russian Federation, should be “open, transparent and uniform, effective and legitimate”; also made a number of other suggestions in his speech. In connection with Medvedev's speeches in Washington, Y. Latynina, a columnist for Ekho Moskvy radio, wrote on November 17: “What did Medvedev say in Washington? It's pointless to discuss it. What happened in Washington was that we were kicked out of the G8. Under Yeltsin, the G7 was expanded to the G8, but after the doctor at Mechel, the tanks in Georgia, and the bursting of the Russian bubble, we were not invited to the G7 meeting, but were invited to the G20 meeting, together with South Africa, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia. Arabia. We were expelled with a bang for poor progress, but we were invited to the general meeting. What can you expect from a student who is expelled for academic failure? That he would stand up and say, "I'll pull myself up in math." And he stood up and said: "I have an idea how to reorganize the work of the dean's office." This is so funny that I have a suspicion that the jester from Medvedev is being made on purpose.”
On December 4, 2008, at a meeting of the OSCE Council of Foreign Ministers in Helsinki, US and British officials rejected the initiative put forward by Medvedev in July of the same year to create a new European security architecture, citing the adequacy of existing structures.
In connection with the entry into office of US President Barack Obama on January 20, 2009, Russian-American political scientist Nikolai Zlobin noted in Vedomosti on January 28, 2009: “Obama's foreign policy will not be based on personal psychology, likes and dislikes, as it was the Texan Bush, including in friendship with Putin. Obama will not accept the style of "kid" attitudes and norms in politics. He will carry it out on the basis of rational calculations, and not emotions and "concepts".
In connection with the meeting of the finance ministers of the G7 countries held in Rome on February 13-14, 2009, to which A. Kudrin was invited, a Reuters report stated that Moscow's previous ambitions regarding the Seven had been undermined by the crisis and falling oil prices.
In early March 2009, an intrigue was created in the Russian and American press around a letter sent earlier by US President Obama Medvedev, declared "secret" by the New York Times, which allegedly contained a proposal for some kind of "exchange", which could include the refusal of the new US administration from missile defense deployment in Europe. On March 3 of the same year, Medvedev, commenting on his exchange of messages with the President of the United States, said: “If we talk about some exchanges or exchanges, I can tell you that the question is not raised in this way, it is unproductive.” A similar point of view was expressed by President Obama. An editorial in the FT on March 7, listing a series of symbolic concessions made to Russia by the new US administration, believed them to be addressed by Prime Minister Putin, concluding: “The world wants to know whether Vladimir Putin is willing to remain an unpredictable and irrational figure, or whether he is an adult.” who genuinely seeks to solve the world's big problems."
military construction
In September 2008, the government decided to adjust the 3-year budget in terms of a significant increase in military spending: the growth in defense spending in 2009 will be the most significant in Russia's recent history - almost 27%.
Military expert V. Mukhin believed at the beginning of October 2008 that, despite the increase in military spending, "money for the modernization of the army is not included in the next three-year budget period."
One of the "parameters" for the formation of the new Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, according to the concept approved by the President on September 15, 2008, for the period up to 2012 should be the creation of Rapid Reaction Forces.
On September 8, 2008, Minister of Defense A. Serdyukov announced that by 2012 the strength of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation would be reduced to 1 million people - from 1 million 134 thousand 800 people; earlier it was reported that a significant reduction in the central apparatus of the Ministry of Defense, including key departments of the General Staff, had begun. The minister put forward the task: "now the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation will consist primarily of units of constant readiness."
On October 14, 2008, Minister of Defense A. Serdyukov detailed the upcoming reforms: there will be a significant reduction in the number of senior and senior officers with a simultaneous increase in the number of junior officers, a reorganization of the management structure and a radical change in the military education system. In particular, “to improve the operational command and control of troops,” a transition is envisaged from the traditional four-tier structure (military district-army-division-regiment) to a three-tier structure (military district-operational command-brigade). The number of generals by 2012 should be reduced from 1100 to 900; the number of junior officers (lieutenants and senior lieutenants) - increase from 50 thousand to 60 thousand. On November 1, 2008, State Duma deputies from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation turned to Medvedev with a demand to abandon the proposed concept of the reform of the armed forces, calling it "an expensive and ill-conceived personnel reform"; State Duma deputy, leader of the Movement in Support of the Army Viktor Ilyukhin said: "We are convinced that this is the final stage in the destruction of the armed forces."
On November 29, 2008, the Kommersant newspaper reported that on November 11 of the same year, Chief of the General Staff Nikolai Makarov signed a directive "On preventing the disclosure of information about the reform of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation"; The publication also referred to its "sources in the Ministry of Defense", testifying that the report on the dismissal was submitted by the head of the GRU, General of the Army V.V. Korabelnikov, as well as a number of other high-ranking generals. The information about the layoffs was refuted on the same day by the acting head of the press service and information of the Russian Ministry of Defense, Colonel A. Drobyshevsky
"Rossiyskaya Gazeta" dated January 22, 2009 claimed that the perestroika that began in the army "did not know either Soviet or Russian history" and that, in essence, "we are creating completely new Armed Forces."
On March 17, 2009, Minister Anatoly Serdyukov, speaking at an expanded meeting of the collegium of the Russian Ministry of Defense with the participation of President D. A. Medvedev, stated that the Concept for the development of the command and control system of the Armed Forces for the period up to 2025 had been approved; Medvedev in his speech, in particular, said that "on the agenda is the transfer of all combat units and formations to the category of constant readiness."
On March 18, 2009, it was reported that the head of the GRU of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Valentin Korabelnikov, had been extended his military service for one year; also, reports were again refuted that General Korabelnikov allegedly wrote a report asking him to be dismissed from the Armed Forces as a sign of disagreement with cuts in military intelligence; his absence from the extended meeting of the collegium of the Ministry of Defense held the day before with the participation of the President of the Russian Federation was explained by the fact that he was on vacation. Korabelnikov was relieved of his post and dismissed from military service by Presidential Decree No. 399 dated April 14, 2009.
Estimates of the level of corruption in the country
According to the report for 2008 published on September 23, 2008 by the international non-governmental anti-corruption organization Transparency International, Russia is one of the countries with a high level of corruption; Russia in 2008 took 147th place in the rating (the level of corruption was assessed on a ten-point scale, with ten points being the lowest level) - its index was 2.1 points, which is 0.2 points less than last year, when the country ranked 143rd. Top Russian officials in September 2008 gave similar assessments of the level of corruption in the country.
Speaking at a meeting of the Anti-Corruption Council on September 30, 2008, President Medvedev said in his opening speech, in particular: “Corruption in our country has acquired not just large-scale forms, large-scale character, it has become a familiar, everyday phenomenon that characterizes life itself in our society. »
Business Medvedev
In 1993, he was one of the founders of the Finzell company, which soon itself established CJSC Ilim Pulp Enterprise, one of the giants of the Russian timber business. In the new firm, Medvedev became director of legal affairs. At the same time, Medvedev owned 50% in Finzell CJSC, and 20% in Ilim Pulp Enterprise.
In 1998, he joined the board of directors of one of the largest enterprises owned by the company, the Bratsk Timber Plant.
After leaving for the presidential administration, Medvedev, according to political scientist Belkovsky, retained a significant stake in CJSC Ilim Pulp Enterprise. He also actually saved the company from the attacks of Deripaska, who wanted to gain control over it, but part of the company (Baikal Pulp and Paper Mill) was lost. On the other hand, Sergey Bespalov, the former deputy general director of BLPC2 for public relations, said that “according to his information, Medvedev does not have any Ilim Pulp shares.”
In the field of information technology
In general, Medvedev is a big fan of information technology, often talking about computers and the Internet in his speeches.
First computer
The first computer in Medvedev's life was the Soviet M-6000 computer, the size of a furniture wall, when he worked with his father at the Technological Institute, as a 1st-year evening student at the law faculty of Leningrad State University.
Until now, Dmitry Medvedev is not registered in any social network, but he has his own personal blog. He is the first president of Russia who began to communicate with the people through a video blog, which initially was not actually a blog, since the blog implies a polemic between the reader and the author, and on Medvedev's blog it was not possible to leave either video responses or text comments. Later, after the creation of a separate site blog.kremlin.ru, the ability to add comments was added, but comments are pre-moderated before being posted to the blog.
There is a "Dmitry Medvedev's blog" in LiveJournal, which is a broadcast account from the President's official video blog, while LiveJournal users have the opportunity to discuss Medvedev's video and text messages.
In addition to the blog and government website kremlin.ru, Medvedev has three websites: medvedev-da.ru, d-a-medvedev.ru, and the website of the presidential candidate medvedev2008.ru. The domain for the latter was registered back in 2005 (after the opening of the site http://putin2004.ru as part of V.V. Putin's election campaign, buyers registered many domains containing the names of members of the government of the Russian Federation and the date of the next presidential election) and was closed in 2009 He also has a personal website.
Dmitry Medvedev and free software
Attitude to topical issues in the life of the network community
D. Medvedev considers the creation of a "hypertext vector Fidonet", which has been developed by Sergei Sokolov for a long time, to be an urgent task in the IT field.
In Runet, the association of Dmitry Medvedev with Medved from the Preved meme has become a meme, caricatures and “phototoads” on this topic are common. When asked about the attitude towards Internet subcultures, in particular, the language of bastards, Medvedev replied that he was well acquainted with the phenomenon and believed that it had a right to exist. In addition, Medvedev remarked that "Medved is a popular internet character and it is impossible to ignore the needs of learning the Albanian language."
Personal life and family
Hobbies
According to information in the media in December 2007, Dmitry Medvedev was fond of hard rock since childhood, went in for swimming and yoga.
Dmitry Medvedev is known as an active user of Apple products. It was reported that Dmitry Medvedev uses the Apple iPhone, despite the fact that this phone was not officially supplied to Russia and was not certified. Dmitry Medvedev's first phone was a Siemens A35, which his wife gave him. Also, while watching videos on the website of the President of Russia, video recordings of presidential addresses were found, in which there are Apple MacBook Pro laptops and a more budgetary version of the MacBook Black.
Known as a fan of the professional football club "Zenith" St. Petersburg. Favorite rock band is Deep Purple.
Also, sometimes Dmitry Medvedev listens to the music of the Linkin Park group: her fan is the son of Dmitry Anatolyevich Ilya.
Family and personal property
He married in 1993 Svetlana Linnik, with whom he studied at the same school. My wife graduated from LFEI, works in Moscow and organizes public events in St. Petersburg.
According to the declaration of income submitted by him to the Central Election Commission in December 2007, he has an apartment with an area of 367.8 sq. m; revenues for 2006 amounted to 2 million 235 thousand rubles.
According to Novaya Gazeta dated January 10, 2008, since August 22, 2000, he has been registered in his own apartment with an area of 364.5 square meters. m. in an apartment building in the residential complex "Golden Keys-1" at the address: Minskaya street, house 1 A, apt. 38. Also, according to Novaya Gazeta, according to data from the Unified Register of Homeowners for 2005, in Moscow, Dmitry Medvedev had another apartment at the address: Tikhvinskaya Street, house No. 4, apt. 35; total area - 174 sq. meters.
According to the site vsedoma.ru dated September 18, 2008, the Medvedevs actually lived in the presidential residence Gorki-9, which was previously occupied by Boris Yeltsin and his family.
Even now, in the Medvedev family, there are also joint trips to the cinema.
But Dmitry Medvedev does not have time for such holidays as Valentine's Day: this year he celebrated it on a working trip to Novosibirsk. It seems that the same story may repeat itself on March 8 - on this day, German Chancellor Angela Merkel promises to descend on the Kremlin.
Dmitry and Svetlana studied at different institutes: he comprehended the basics of law at Leningrad State University, she gnawed at the granite of accounting at the Leningrad Financial and Economic Institute. Voznesensky. Already in her first year, Svetlana transferred to the evening department and, in parallel with her studies, worked in her specialty. And two years after graduation, in 1989, Linnik and Medvedev got married, and quite unexpectedly for many.
Like many young families in our country, the Medvedevs had a chance to share the same apartment with their parents for several years. They settled with the Linnikovs - they had a bigger apartment. By the way, Svetlana's parents are military personnel. Medvedev was then finishing his Ph.D. thesis and was already working in the administration of Leningrad - in the committee for external relations.
In 1996, the Medvedevs had a son, Ilya. Last fall, after visiting the Moscow Regional Perinatal Center in Balashikha, Medvedev, in an unexpected outburst of frankness, told reporters about this long-standing event: “I consider it justified if a man supports a woman during childbirth, although I was not present there. I think this is biologically correct ".
After maternity leave, Svetlana did not return to work. “The normal logic of a man who wants to have a strong and reliable rear behind him. Of course, from time to time Sveta started talking: they say, it would be nice to find some extra occupation, but I explained that, in my opinion, it would be better for the family if the wife stays at home," Medvedev later said.
Having become the curator of national projects, Dmitry Medvedev said more than once that a family should have several children. Does the President of Russia intend to stop there, or does the family plan also include a second child? "Like for every normal person, this topic remains open for me," Dmitry Medvedev once said.
Svetlana helped her husband's successful career a lot. Thanks to her natural charm, she easily acquired contacts that were later useful to Dmitry Medvedev in life and work. According to rumors, being a friend of the wife of a co-owner of a timber processing company, Svetlana attached her husband to this business.
Despite the lack of an official position and salary, Svetlana Medvedeva is a busy person. She leads the board of trustees of the target complex program "Spiritual and Moral Culture of the Younger Generation of Russia", created with the blessing of Patriarch Alexy II. This implies the creation of Orthodox orphanages, the organization of pilgrimage trips and other charitable things. Svetlana Medvedeva personally patronizes boarding school N1 in St. Petersburg, where 316 children with a diagnosis of "mental retardation" live.
Recently, Svetlana Vladimirovna was consecrated to the female order of the Russian Orthodox Church of St. Euphrosyne of Moscow.
Svetlana Medvedeva follows fashion and always looks good. Her style is elegant business suits, and her favorite couturier is Valentin Yudashkin. Dressed only in Russia.
The wife of the new president also happens at social events - at Alla Pugacheva's housewarming party, for example, or at High Fashion Week.
It is not surprising that such an energetic and charming lady, according to many, has a considerable influence on her husband. They say that it was Svetlana who contributed to the fact that Dmitry Medvedev not so long ago lost those extra pounds and pretty freshened up. His wife asked him to learn yoga and took him to the gym and swimming pool. This had an extremely positive effect on the image of the politician.
Attitude towards religion
According to his pre-election interview, Dmitry Medvedev received Orthodox baptism at the age of 23 by his own decision "in one of the central cathedrals of St. Petersburg", after which, as he believes, "another life began for him ...".
According to the Union of Orthodox Citizens, Dmitry Medvedev is a churched Orthodox Christian.
His wife, Svetlana Medvedeva, is the head of the Board of Trustees of the target complex program "Spiritual and Moral Culture of the Younger Generation of Russia", which is led by Hieromonk Kypria.
While in Kazan in November 2007, Dmitry Medvedev said: "Increasing religious education is the task of the state, religious associations, and the national education system." In the same place, he expressed support for "the proposal to grant religious educational institutions the right to accredit their educational program according to state standards." It expects that the new composition of the State Duma will, as a matter of priority, adopt a law on state accreditation of educational programs for non-state, including religious, educational institutions. Also in Kazan, he supported the proposal of representatives of Muslim organizations to grant the leaders of Russia's traditional faiths the right to speak on federal television channels.
Criticism
Almost all national projects curated by Medvedev have been criticized.
Within the framework of the national project "Affordable Housing", originally intended to solve the housing problem of the poor, business and premium class housing will be built for Russian business (projects "Horse Lakhta", "A101", "Rublyovo-Arkhangelskoye", "Northern Valley").
Some members of the opposition, such as Andrei Illarionov, consider Medvedev an illegitimate president, since the 2008 presidential election was, in their opinion, not an election, but a special operation.
Medvedev initiated amendments to the Federal Law "On the Basic Guarantees of the Rights of the Child in the Russian Federation", prohibiting minors from staying in public places at night. According to some analysts, this provision is in conflict with Art. 27 of the Constitution of Russia, which affirms the right of a Russian citizen to free movement, choice of place of stay and residence; on the other hand, according to, in particular, P. Astakhov, such restrictions are permissible if there is a threat to health and morality.
Even this law actually exists only on paper, but in reality it is not controlled in any way and is not enforced by the regulatory and supervisory authorities. On September 6, 2008, by decree No. 1316 “On Certain Issues of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation”, he liquidated the Department for Combating Organized Crime and Terrorism, as well as the entire regional system of Organized Crime Control Departments. According to some experts, a blow was dealt to the fight against organized crime.
On June 24 - July 15, 2009, the State Duma adopted in three readings the presidential bill of the federal law "On Amendments to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation" (on the issue of strengthening criminal liability for committing crimes against the life, health and sexual integrity of minors). There are loopholes in this law to mitigate the punishment for pedophiles, the older the age of the minor, the milder the punishment for pedophiles. Medvedev wanted to make punishment for pedophiles even more lenient. On July 18, the Federation Council approved the bill, and on July 27 it was signed by the president. In general, Articles 134 and 135 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation require the voluntary consent of a minor, otherwise the rules of Articles 131-133 apply. Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. hence, the Communists' criticism of the "lobby rapists" is unfounded.
He is excellent at oratory and speech. He is able to beautifully and captivatingly describe the ways of solving economic and social problems, the ways of Russia's development. But as of the beginning of 2010, he did not achieve positive results in the economy and social sphere of Russia.
The central (state) television channels have always covered the actions of Medvedev D.A. from a positive side. and Putin V.V. The state-owned mass media talk more about V.V. Putin and the United Russia party than about D.A. Medvedev. Reviews of state TV channels about significant parties and leaders who do not agree with the current state of affairs in the country and the authorities (for example, "KPRF"), as a rule, are covered from the position of a negative attitude towards them. Against this backdrop, private and relatively independent TV channels such as REN TV often criticize the actions of the president and the government's leading party, United Russia, to the point of alleging corruption. On the basis of which we can conclude that tacit censorship has been introduced in state television channels to criticize the actions of the government and the United Russia majority party. Also, state television channels are conducting enhanced PR for the current government in order to maintain its high popularity. Most likely, when Medvedev D.A. the term of office of the president of Russia will end, Putin V.V. will again take the post of acting president. (or another "heir" of the current government, which will be pointed out to citizens by the state media). The existing propaganda emanating from the media will not allow the majority of Russian voters to make an objective choice.
Titles, awards, ranks
Dmitry Medvedev became a holder of the highest award of the Serbian Orthodox Church - the Order of St. Sava, 1st degree.
Medal "In memory of the 1000th anniversary of Kazan"
Laureate of the Prize of the Government of the Russian Federation in the field of education for 2001 (August 30, 2002) - for the creation of the textbook "Civil Law" for educational institutions of higher professional education
Commemorative medal of A. M. Gorchakov (Russian Foreign Ministry, 2008)
Knight Grand Cross with Diamonds of the Order of the Sun of Peru (2008)
Grand Chain of the Order of the Liberator (Venezuela, 2008)
Anniversary medal "10 years of Astana" (Kazakhstan, 2008)
Star of the Order of St. Mark the Apostle (Alexandria Orthodox Church, 2009)
Order of St. Sava, First Class (Serbian Orthodox Church, 2009)
Honorary Doctor of Law, Faculty of Law, St. Petersburg State University.
Honorary Doctor of the University of World Economy and Diplomacy under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Uzbekistan (2009) - for great services and contribution to the development and strengthening of relations, friendship and cooperation between Russia and Uzbekistan
Laureate of the "Themis" award for 2007 in the nomination "Public Service" "for his great personal contribution to the development of the fourth part of the Civil Code and for the personal presentation of the bill in the State Duma."
In 2007, the medal "Symbol of Science" was awarded.
Laureate of the International Foundation for the Unity of Orthodox Peoples “For outstanding work in strengthening the unity of Orthodox peoples. For the approval and promotion of Christian values in the life of society" named after His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II for 2009 (January 21, 2010).
class rank
Since January 17, 2000 - Acting State Councilor of the Russian Federation, 1st class
Sources
en.wikipedia.org Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
file.liga.net League Dossier
medvedev-da.ru Medvedev's blog
medvedevda.ucoz.ru Childhood, life, family of President Dmitry Medvedev
trud.ru Site about work and life
