Dmitry Peskov

Dmitry Sergeyevich Peskov (Russian: Дмитрий Серге́евич Песков (born October 17, 1967) is a Russian diplomat, and since 2012 the press spokesman for the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin.

Early life and education

Peskov was born in Moscow in 1967. His father, Sergey, headed the Soviet diplomatic mission in Pakistan.

In 1989 he graduated from the Institute of Asian and African Countries at Moscow State University specializing in history and Eastern studies. In the same year he joined the Soviet Foreign Ministry.

Career

Over the course of ten years, Peskov rose through the ranks to become the first secretary of the Russian embassy in Ankara, Turkey.

In 2000 he returned to Russia to work at the press service of the Russian President, serving a number of positions, including a four-year term as first deputy press secretary of the Russian president from 2004 to 2008. He has served as Putin’s spokesperson since April 2000.

Dmitry Peskov was named as Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov's press secretary on 25 April 2008, putting him in place to lead Vladimir Putin's press operations when he moved to the job of Prime Minister under Dmitry Medvedev's presidency. In May 2012, when Putin again became President, Peskov succeeded Natalya Timakova as the presidential spokesperson.

Vladimir Putin

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.