Dmitry Medvedev Biography

Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev was born on September 14, 1965, in Leningrad, Soviet Union (now St. Petersburg, Russia), to Anatoly Afanasyevich Medvedev and Yulia Veniaminovna Medvedeva. His father was a chemical engineer who taught at the Leningrad State Institute of Technology, while his mother was a Russian teacher at Herzen State Pedagogical University, who became a tour guide at Pavlovsk Palace.

He was a curious child and a “dreadful why-asker” who had finished all ten volumes of Small Soviet Encyclopedia from his father’s collection in the third grade. After completing his high school education in 1982, he enrolled at Leningrad State University, where he chose to study law over linguistics.

After completing his graduation from the Leningrad State University Faculty of Law in 1987, he considered joining the prosecutor's office to become an investigator, but accepted an opportunity to pursue graduate studies as the civil law chair. He received his Doctor of Juridical Science degree in civil law in 1990 by defending his dissertation titled, "Problems of Realisation of Civil Juridical Personality of State Enterprise”.

At the university, Dmitry Medvedev studied under democratic politician Anatoly Sobchak and was the de facto head of Sobchak's successful campaign for a seat in the Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR in 1988. After Sobchak became chairman of the Leningrad City Council in 1990, he served as a consultant to City Hall's Committee for Foreign Affairs and developed a friendship with one of Sobchak's former students, Vladimir Putin.

He taught civil and Roman law at his alma mater, (now St. Petersburg State University), from 1990 to 1999 and was well-liked by his students. During this period, he co-wrote a popular three-volume civil law textbook which has sold over a million copies.

Dmitry Medvedev became the legal affairs director of the St. Petersburg-based timber company Ilim Pulp Enterprise (ILP) in 1993. He played a crucial role in making ILP Russia's largest lumber company in the following years and received 20% of the company's stock.

Medvedev served as the chief of Putin’s presidential campaign in March 2000 and after Putin became president, he appointed Medvedev as the deputy head of the presidential staff. In June that year, Medvedev was elected Gazprom board chairman, following which he restructured the debts of the company, contributing to its market capitalization growth from $7.8 billion in 2000 to $300 billion in 2008.

He replaced Voloshin as presidential chief of staff in October 2003, but was moved from the presidential administration of the government in November 2005 before Putin appointed him as first deputy prime minister of Russia. In that position, he was particularly responsible for implementing the National Priority Projects that focused on improving public health, education, housing and agriculture.

When Putin was forced down by term limits in 2008, he introduced Medvedev as his preferred successor on December 10, 2007, emphasizing how much he trusted him, and the latter was elected President of Russia on March 2, 2008. He took oath as the third president of the Russian Federation in the Grand Kremlin Palace on May 7, 2008 and keeping his campaign promise, appointed Putin Prime Minister of Russia the very next day.

Medvedev revealed at the United Russia party congress in September 2011 that he and Putin had a deal to allow the latter to return to the presidency in 2012. He recommended Putin as the party's presidential candidate and spent his last day in office on May 7, 2012, the same day on which he was nominated to the office of prime minister by Putin.

He took office as prime minister of Russia on 8 May 2012 and was nominated for a second term by Putin on May 7, 2018. He and his entire Cabinet resigned on 15 January 2020 after Putin’s proposed drastic amendments to the constitution to shift the balance of power away from presidency to retain power after his tenure ended.

He was appointed deputy chairman of the Security Council of Russia, a new advisory body overseen by Putin, on January 16, 2020. After Russia was suspended from the Council of Europe for invading Ukraine in February 2022, Medvedev stated it was a “good opportunity” to reinstate death penalty in Russia or to pull out of the New START nuclear arms reduction treaty.

Dmitry Medvedev, who was vacationing when the 2008 Russo-Georgian War escalated on August 8, 2008, reportedly authorized the use of force against Georgia in a phone call with Defence Minister Anatoliy Serdyukov. Medvedev’s approval rating increased after the offensive ended five days later and he signed a decree recognizing South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states.

His popularity declined during the global financial crisis because despite his government setting aside over a trillion rubles to help troubled banks and initiating large-scale stimulus programs, the economy did not stabilize until late 2009. He tried to diversify the economy from dependency on oil and gas revenues by focusing on high technology and innovation, and stressed on privatization of unneeded state assets to fund the modernization drive.

Dmitry Medvedev first met his future wife, Svetlana Linnik, in the seventh grade when both were studying at the same school in parallel classes. The two got married much later in 1993, and have a son named Ilya Dmitrevich Medvedev, born in 1995.

He was fond of sports as a student and reserves one hour each morning and evening for swimming and weight training, apart from spending time on jogging, playing chess, and practicing yoga. His hobbies include reading books by Mikhail Bulgakov and the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling, and taking pictures, one of which even sold for 51 million rubles at a charity auction.

He lives with his family in an upscale apartment house "Zolotye Klyuchi" in Moscow, but according to a 2016 report by opposition leader Alexei Navalny, he has an 80 hectare summer residence ("dacha"). Spanning an area 30 times the size of the Red Square, it included a plethora of houses, a ski run, a cascading swimming pool, three helipads, purpose-built communications towers, and even a house for ducks.