

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev meets with artists while visiting an art exhibition in the Moscow House of Photography in Moscow in March. Dmitry Astakhov/Presidential Press Service/AP
A Russian traditional wooden Matryoshka doll photographed in St. Petersburg in 2008 depicts President Vladimir Putin inside a doll of presidential candidate First Deputy Premier Dmitry Medvedev. Dmitry Lovetsky/AP
President Medvedev and German Chancellor Angela Merkel watch the honor guards in Berlin in 2008. Steffen Kugler/AP
Leaders of the Group of Eight take shovels to plant trees commemorating the G8 summit prior to a group photo session in Toyako, northern Japan in 2008. From left: Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, President Medvedev, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and President of the European Union Jose Manuel Durao Barroso. Dmitry Astakhov/Presidential Press Service/AP
Medvedev (l.), and Prime Minister Putin stand wtih World War II veterans during the annual Victory Day parade on Moscow's Red Square on May 9, 2009. Victory Day, marking the defeat of Nazi Germany, is Russia's most important secular holiday. Mikhail Klimentyev/Presidential Press Service/AP
Medvedev is welcomed by a girl in traditional Bavarian costume after his arrival at the airport in Munich, Germany, in 2009. Mikhail Klimentyev/Presidential Press Service/AP
Medvedev poses for a photograph as he visits a Buddhist monastery in the village of Verkhnaya Ivolga in Buryatia, Russia, in 2009. Dmitry Astakhov/Kremlin/Reuters
Medvedev, (l.), and Putin talk at Russia's ski resort Krasnaya Polyana near Sochi in 2010. Dmitry Astakhov/Kremlin/Reuters
US President Barack Obama and Medvedev ride together to lunch in Arlington, Va., in June 2010. Pete Souza/White House/AP
Medvedev shakes hands with Afghan President Hamid Karzai (r.), during their meeting in Moscow's Kremlin in January. Maxim Shipenkov/AP
Medvedev enters a hall in the Kremlin to meet with high-ranked military officials and to take part at an award ceremony in Moscow in April. Dmitry Astakhov/Presidential Press Service/AP
Medvedev and Russian Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev, (l.), pass a formation of police officers as they visit the Interior special task force unit Zubr (bison) in Shchelkovo village, just outside Moscow in March. Dmitry Astakhov/Presidential Press Service/AP
Medvedev and his wife, Svetlana, attend an Orthodox Easter service in the Christ the Saviour Cathedral in Moscow in April. Vladimir Rodionov/Kremlin/Reuters
Medvedev visits the Lytkarino Optical Glass Factory in the town of Lytkarino outside Moscow in April. Natalia Kolesnikova/AP
Servicemen in a parade drill infantry subdivision in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don watch Medvedev speak during a press conference In May. Vladimir Konstantinov/Reuters
Medvedev steps down from his jet plane upon arrival at the Sanya airport in China in April. Andy Wong/AP
On May 18, Russians wearing T-shirts displaying images of their president dance near Red Square in Moscow to the song 'American Boy' as they take part in a flash mob in tribute to Medvedev's stiff dance moves from a viral video on YouTube from April 20. Denis Sinyakov/Reuters
Medvedev visits a maternity hospital in Kostroma, Russia, in May. Dmitry Astakhov/Presidential Press Service/AP