page_title: Dmitry Medvedev
section_title: Presidential candidate
hierarchical_section_title: Dmitry Medvedev / Early career / Presidential candidate
caption_attribution_description: English: THE KREMLIN, MOSCOW. With President-Elect Dmitry Medvedev at the Meeting with State Duma Leadership and Faction leaders.Русский: МОСКВА, КРЕМЛЬ. С избранным Президентом России Дмитрием Медведевым – на встрече с руководством Государственной Думы и лидерами фракций.
context_page_description: Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev is a Russian politician who is serving as Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russia, headed by Vladimir Putin. He served as prime minister of Russia between 2012 and 2020. From 2008 to 2012, Medvedev served as president of Russia. Medvedev resigned along with the rest of the government on 15 January 2020 to allow President Putin to make sweeping constitutional changes; he was succeeded by Mikhail Mishustin on 16 January 2020. On the same day, Vladimir Putin appointed him deputy chairman of the Security Council.
  Regarded as more liberal than his predecessor and successor as president, Vladimir Putin, Medvedev's top agenda as president was a wide-ranging modernisation programme, aiming at modernising Russia's economy and society, and lessening the country's reliance on oil and gas. During Medvedev's tenure, the New START nuclear arms reduction treaty was signed by Russia and the United States, Russia emerged victorious in the Russo-Georgian War, and recovered from the Great Recession. Medvedev initiated a substantial law enforcement reform and launched an anti-corruption campaign, despite having been accused of corruption himself.
context_section_description: Following his appointment as First Deputy Prime Minister, many political observers began to regard Medvedev as a potential candidate for the 2008 presidential elections, although Western observers widely believed Medvedev was too liberal and too pro-Western for Putin to endorse him as a candidate. Instead, Western observers expected the candidate to arise from the ranks of the so-called siloviki, security and military officials many of whom were appointed to high positions during Putin's presidency. The silovik Sergei Ivanov and the administrator-specialist Viktor Zubkov were seen as the strongest candidates. In opinion polls which asked Russians to pick their favourite successor to Putin from a list of candidates not containing Putin himself, Medvedev often came out first, beating Ivanov and Zubkov as well as the opposition candidates. In November 2006, Medvedev's trust rating was 17%, more than double than that of Ivanov. Medvedev's popularity was probably boosted by his high-profile role in the National Priority Projects.
  Many observers were surprised when on 10 December 2007, President Putin announced that Medvedev was his preferred successor. The announcement was staged on TV with four parties suggesting Medvedev's candidature to Putin, and Putin then giving his endorsement. The four pro-Kremlin parties were United Russia, Fair Russia, Agrarian Party of Russia and Civilian Power. United Russia held its party congress on 17 December 2007 where by secret ballot of the delegates, Medvedev was officially endorsed as their candidate in the 2008 presidential election. He formally registered his candidacy with the Central Election Commission on 20 December 2007 and said he would step down as chairman of Gazprom, since under the current laws, the president is not permitted to hold another post. His registration was formally accepted as valid by the Russian Central Election Commission on 21 January 2008. Describing his reasons for endorsing Medvedev, Putin said:
  I am confident that he will be a good president and an effective manager. But besides other things, there is this personal chemistry: I trust him. I just trust him.
caption: Medvedev with Vladimir Putin
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