Dmitry Medvedev

Born 14 September 1965, Medvedev came up as a lawyer before winning the presidency in the 2008 election, where he was seen as more liberal than Vladimir Putin, who stepped into the prime minister's role during Medvedev's term. He pushed a modernisation programme to wean Russia off oil-and-gas dependence, oversaw recovery from the Great Recession, signed the New START nuclear arms treaty with the United States, and launched an anti-corruption campaign - though he would later face corruption accusations himself. His presidency also saw the Russo-Georgian War. After a single term he was succeeded by Putin in 2012, who appointed him prime minister; Medvedev resigned with the rest of the government in January 2020 to make way for sweeping constitutional changes and was named deputy chairman of the Security Council the same day. In the lead-up to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the once-moderate Medvedev adopted increasingly hawkish, anti-Western positions - a shift many read as repositioning for potential succession.