Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev(born 14 September 1965) is thethird and current President of theRussian Federation, inaugurated on7 May 2008. He won the presidentialelection held on 2 March 2008 with71.25% of the popular vote.

Medvedev was appointedFirst Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian government on 14 November2005. Formerly Vladimir Putin抯 Chief of Presidential Staff, he was alsothe Chairman of Gazprom抯 board of directors, a post he had held for thesecond time since the year 2000. Medvedev抯 candidacy was backed bythen President Vladimir Putin.

On 10 December 2007, he was informally endorsed as a candidatefor the forthcoming presidential elections by the largest Russian politicalparty, United Russia and several pro-presidential parties, and officiallyendorsed by United Russia on 17 December 2007. A technocrat and politicalappointee, Medvedev had never held elective office before 2008.

Foreign policyDmitry Medvedev and Boris Tadi? president of Serbia, sealed thedeal regarding the constructionof a gas pipeline South Streamin late 2008. The first meetingbetween Dmitry Medvedev andBarack Obama, before the G20summit in London is on 1 April2009.

BRIC leaders in 2008 -Manmohan Singh, Dmitry Medvedev, Hu Jintao and Lula da Silva.InAugust, during the third month of Medvedev’s presidency, Russia tookpart in the 2008 South Ossetia war with Georgia, which drove tensionin Russian-American relations to a post-Cold War high. On 26 August,following a unanimous vote of the Federal Assembly of Russia, Medvedevissued a presidential decree officially recognizing Abkhazia and SouthOssetia as independent states, an action condemned by the G7. On 31August 2008, Medvedev announced a shift in the Russian foreign policyunder his government, built around five main principles:

1. Fundamental principles of international law are supreme.

2. The world will be multipolar.

3. Russia will not seek confrontation with other nations.

4. Russia will protect its citizens wherever they are.

In his address to the parliament on 5 November 2008 he also promisedto deploy the Iskander missile system and radar-jamming facilities inKaliningrad Oblast to counter the U. S. missile defence system in EasternEurope. Following U.S. President Barack Obama’s announcement on17 September 2009, that Washington would not deploy missile-defenseelements in the Czech Republic and Poland, Dmitry Medvedev said hedecided against deploying Iskander missiles in Russia’s Kaliningrad Oblast.