According to preliminary presidential election results, Dmitry Medvedev has more than 70% of the votes. He may be relatively new to some foreigners, but his name is well known to Russians and world business leaders. The international community, including

The 42-year-old has had a meteoric rise from a council estate in St. Petersburg to the Kremlin. On the way, he’s lectured in law, learnt English, married his childhood sweetheart and been First Deputy Prime Minister. But perhaps it’s his love of hard rock bands like Deep Purple which most intrigues foreigners.
 
Dmitry Medvedev's Bio
 
Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev was born on 14 September, 1965 in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg).
 
His father, Anatoly Afanasievich Medvedev, was a professor at the Leningrad Technological Institute (he died in 2004). His mother, Yulia Veniaminovna was a philologist, lectured at the Leningrad Pedagogical Institute and then worked as a museum guide. He was the only child in the family, who lived on the Kupchino council estate, a suburb of Leningrad.

In 1987 Dmitry Medvedev graduated from the Law faculty of Leningrad State University. In 1990 he completed post-graduate study at the same university gaining a PhD in law. The theme of his PhD thesis was “Problems of realisation of civil juridical personality of state enterprise”.
 
From 1987-1990, simultaneously with his post-graduate study, he worked as an assistant lecturer of civil law at Leningrad State University.
 
In spring 1989 he took part in the election campaign of Anatoly Sobchak to the Chamber of People’s Deputies of the USSR.
 
From 1990 to 1999 Medvedev was an associate professor of civil law at the law faculty of Leningrad State University (later – St. Petersburg State University). His first taste of an administrative job was from June 1990 to January 1991, when he was one of the deputies of St. Petersburg City Council chairman Anatoly Sobtchak.
 
On November 9, 1999 Medvedev was appointed Deputy Head of Government Administration (under the head Dmitry Kozak). However he was dismissed as soon as January 11, 2000, due to his appointment as Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration on December 31, 1999 by caretaker President Vladimir Putin (under the head Aleksandr Voloshin).
 
On February 15, 2000 Medvedev interrupted his work in the Presidential Administration to manage Putin’s election campaign. He resumed it on June 3, 2000 as First Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration.
 
On June 30, 2000 during a yearly meeting of JSC Gazprom board of directors, Medvedev was elected Chairman of the
Board. From October 30, 2003 he headed the Presidential Administration.
 
In April 2004 Medvedev was appointed a member of Russia’s Security Council.

On November 14, 2005 Dmitry Medvedev was appointed First Deputy Prime Minister and gave up the job of the Head of Presidential Staff.
 
After that President Putin put Medvedev in charge of national priority projects. Their key goal was investing in Russia's human capital by boosting the sectors that determine the quality of life in the country, namely education, public healthcare, housing and agriculture.
 
Dmitry Medvedev is a well-known for his scientific publications in the area of transport law, juridical personality of legal bodies and legal regulation in credit relations. He is also co-author of the university text-book on civil law, three volumes of which were published by Leningrad State University between 1991 and 2001. The book later received a government award in education.

During his student years Medvedev was a hard-rock fan with Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin his favourite bands. He still collects vinyl records and recently was pictured with Deep Purple during their visit to Moscow.
 
He also took an interest in photography and enjoyed sports. He participated in rowing and weight-lifting competitions at University and won several of them.
 
Dmitry Medvedev is married with a son, Ilya, who was born in 1996. He met his future wife Svetlana at school and they were married in 1989.
 
Svetlana Medvedev (maiden name – Linnik) graduated from the financial and economic institute. She now works in Moscow and organises social events in her home town, St. Petersburg.