The result of the Presidential elections in Russia which were held on 2nd March, 2008 favored Mr. Dmitry Medvedev and made him the Third President of Russia. Mr. Medvedev was supported by the former president Vladimir Putin and 5 political parties namely United Russia, Fair Russia, Agrarian Party, Civilian Power, and Russian Ecological Party. He got 71% of the total voting percent.
Though some of the official monitoring groups reported that only some candidates had the media coverage and some were treated unfair. But the European Election Monitoring Group (PACE) and Vladimir Churov, the Head of the Election Commission denoted the result as the will of the people.
One of the main reasons for Medvedev’s victory is the support of Putin. On 10th December, 2007 Vladimir Putin announced that his preferred successor was Medvedev. So other parties that supported Putin came forward announcing Medvedev as their candidate for presidential elections on Dec 17th 2007.
After registering his candidature with election commission on 20th Dec, he started his election campaign in January 2008. In his first speech he declared that he would appoint Vladimir Putin as the Prime Minister after becoming President. Putin also accepted this saying that he would be the Prime Minister with Medvedev as President. “Together we will win”, was the slogan on the election posters with both of their photos side by side. The election polls also said Medvedev would be replacing Vladimir Putin.