Kirkenes (help·info) (Finnish: Kirkkoniemi, Kven: Kirkkoniemi, Ter Sami: Girkonjárga) is a town in the municipality of Sør-Varanger in the county of Finnmark in the far northeast of Norway. The town has a population of about 3,300, which expands to approximately 7,300 if the neighbouring suburban areas of Hesseng, Sandnes and Bjørnevatn are included.

The area around Kirkenes was a common Norwegian–Russian district until 1826, when the present border was settled. The original name of the headland was Piselvnes, but this was changed to Kirkenes (meaning "church headland") after the church was built in 1862.

During the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany, Kirkenes was one of the many bases for the German Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe's Jagdgeschwader 5, and apart from that, the area served as a main base for supplies to the Murmansk front (see Lapland War). Reportedly Kirkenes is second after Malta on a list of European towns experiencing air-raid alarms and attacks, with more than 1,000 alarms and 320 air attacks. The town was taken over by the Red Army on October 25, 1944 as the German Wehrmacht was pushed out and fled the area after having destroyed most of the remaining infrastructure. Only 13 houses survived the war. Close to the town there is a memorial to 11 freedom fighters who helped the partisans collect information about the German occupation. In the summer of 1943 their activities were discovered and many of them were sent to a prisoner-of-war camp near Kirkenes. Following a Court Martial the 11 were sentenced to death and were killed near the memorial spot on 18 August 1943. When the common grave was opened in 1946 it was found that the men had been beaten to death. Following the post mortem and memorial service the bodies were returned to their homesteads.

Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev (Russian: Дми́трий Анато́льевич Медве́дев, tr. Dmitriy Anatolyevich Medvedev; IPA: [ˈdmʲitrʲɪj ɐnɐˈtolʲjɪvʲɪtɕ mʲɪˈdvʲedʲɪf] ( listen); born 14 September 1965) is a Russian politician who has been Prime Minister of Russia since 2012. He previously served as President of Russia from 2008 to 2012.

Born to a family of academics, Medvedev graduated from the Law Department of Leningrad State University in 1987. He defended his dissertation in 1990 and worked as a docent at his alma mater, now renamed to Saint Petersburg State University, where he taught civil and Roman law until 1999. Medvedev's political career began as the election campaign manager and later an adviser of St. Petersburg Mayor Anatoly Sobchak. During this time, Medvedev befriended Vladimir Putin. In November 1999, Medvedev was hired in the Russian presidential administration, where he worked as deputy chief of staff. In the 2000 Presidential elections, Medvedev was Putin's campaign manager. On 14 November 2005, Medvedev was appointed First Deputy Prime Minister and was tasked with overseeing National Priority Projects. He also worked as the Chairman of Gazprom's board of directors, a post which he held until 2008.