- published: 11 Mar 2016
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Petro Oleksiyovych Poroshenko (Ukrainian: Петро́ Олексі́йович Пороше́нко, Ukrainian pronunciation: [pɛt'rɔ oɫɛk'sijovɪt͡ʃ poro'ʃɛnko]; born 26 September 1965) is the fifth and current President of Ukraine, in office since 2014. He served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2009 to 2010, and as the Minister of Trade and Economic Development in 2012. From 2007 until 2012, Poroshenko headed the Council of Ukraine's National Bank.
Outside government, Poroshenko has been a prominent oligarch with a lucrative career in acquiring and building assets. His most recognized ownerships are Roshen, the large-scale confectionery company which has earned him the nickname of 'Chocolate King', and a TV channel 5 kanal, an all-news national TV broadcaster. Due to the scale of his business holdings in manufacturing, agriculture and financial industry, his political influence that included several stints at government prior to his presidency, and ownership of an influential mass-media outlet Poroshenko has long been considered one of the prominent Ukrainian oligarchs even though not the most influential among them.
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (/ˈpuːtɪn/; Russian: Влади́мир Влади́мирович Пу́тин; IPA: [vlɐˈdʲimʲɪr vlɐˈdʲimʲɪrəvʲɪtɕ ˈputʲɪn], born 7 October 1952) has been the President of Russia since 7 May 2012, succeeding Dmitry Medvedev. Putin previously served as President from 2000 to 2008, and as Prime Minister from 1999 to 2000 and again from 2008 to 2012. During his last term as Prime Minister, he was also the chairman of United Russia, the ruling party.
For 16 years, Putin was an officer in the KGB, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel before he retired to enter politics in his native Saint Petersburg in 1991. He moved to Moscow in 1996 and joined President Boris Yeltsin's administration where he rose quickly, becoming Acting President on 31 December 1999 when Yeltsin unexpectedly resigned. Putin easily won the subsequent 2000 presidential election and was reelected in 2004. Because of constitutionally mandated term limits, Putin was ineligible to run for a third consecutive presidential term in 2008. Dmitry Medvedev won the 2008 presidential election and appointed Putin as Prime Minister, beginning a period of so-called "tandemocracy". In September 2011, following a change in the law extending the presidential term from four years to six, Putin announced that he would seek a third, non-consecutive term as President in the 2012 presidential election, an announcement which led to large-scale protests in many Russian cities. In March 2012, he won the election, which was criticized for procedural irregularities, and is serving a six-year term.