title: Steve Irwin

text: Steve Irwin Day is an annual event on 15 November, honouring the life and legacy of Irwin. The date was chosen because it takes place on the birthday of one of Irwin's favourite animals, a tortoise from the Galápagos Islands. Events that take place include people raising money for Wildlife Warriors to help continue Irwin's conservation work, and employees at Australia Zoo wearing khaki uniforms in Irwin's memory.


title: Steve Irwin

text: In 1997, while on a fishing trip on the coast of Queensland with his father, Irwin discovered a new species of turtle. Later given the honour of naming the newly discovered species, he named it Irwin's turtle ("Elseya irwini") after his family. Another newly discovered Australian animal – a species of air-breathing land snail, "Crikey steveirwini", was named after Irwin in 2009.


title: Steve Irwin

text: Irwin was awarded the Centenary Medal by the Australian government in 2001 for his 'service to global conservation and to Australian tourism'. In 2004, he was recognised as Tourism Export of the Year. He was also nominated in 2004 for Australian of the Year but it was awarded to Australian cricket captain Steve Waugh, while Irwin was named 2004 Queensland Australian of the Year. Shortly before his death, Irwin was to be named an adjunct professor at the University of Queensland's School of Integrative Biology. On 14 November 2007, Irwin was awarded the adjunct professorship posthumously. In 2007, Irwin was posthumously inducted into the Logie Hall of Fame.


title: Steve Irwin

text: In May 2007, the government of Rwanda announced that it would name a baby gorilla after Irwin as a tribute to his work in wildlife conservation. Also in 2007, the state government of Kerala, India named the Crocodile Rehabilitation and Research Centre at Neyyar Wildlife Sanctuary in his honour; however, Terri objected that this action had been taken without her permission and asked the Kerala government in 2009 to stop using Irwin's name and images – a request with which the state government complied in mid-2009.


title: Steve Irwin

text: Irwin, after his death, was described by Mark Townend, CEO of RSPCA Queensland, as a 'modern-day Noah'. British naturalist David Bellamy lauded his skills as a natural historian and media performer. Canadian environmentalist David Suzuki paid tribute to Irwin, noting that '[h]umanity will not protect that which we fear or do not understand. Steve Irwin helped us understand those things that many people thought were a nuisance at best, a horror at worst. That made him a great educator and conservationist'.


title: Steve Irwin

text: After his death, the vessel owned by the environmental action group Sea Shepherd Conservation Society was renamed . Shortly before his death, Irwin had been investigating joining Sea Shepherd's 2007–2008 voyage to Antarctica to disrupt Japanese whaling activity. Following his death, the organisation suggested renaming their vessel, and this idea was endorsed by Terri. Regarding the ship and its new name, Terri said, 'If Steve were alive, he'd be aboard with them!'


title: Steve Irwin

text: Irwin was inducted in 2009 into the Queensland Business Leaders Hall of Fame, recognised for international entrepreneurship both in business and wildlife conservation, significantly contributing to Queensland and its international reputation and in 2015, Irwin was a posthumous recipient of the Queensland Greats Awards. In 2017 it was announced that Irwin would be posthumously honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The star was unveiled on 26 April 2018. On 22 February 2019, the 57th anniversary of Irwin's birth, the search engine Google released a Google Doodle commemorating him, in the form of a slideshow.


title: Steve Irwin

text: On 2 January 2004, Irwin carried his one-month-old son, Robert, in his arm while hand-feeding a chicken carcass to Murray, a saltwater crocodile. The infant was close to the crocodile, and comparisons were made in the press to Michael Jackson's dangling his son outside a German hotel window. In addition, some child welfare groups, animal rights groups, and some of Irwin's television viewers criticised his actions as irresponsible and tantamount to child abuse. Irwin apologised on the US NBC show "Today". Both he and his wife publicly stated that Irwin was in complete control of the situation, as he had dealt with crocodiles since he was a small child, and based on his lifetime of experience neither he nor his son was in any danger. He also showed footage of the event shot from a different angle, demonstrating that they were much farther from the crocodile than they had appeared in the publicised clip. Terri said their child was in no more danger than one being taught to swim. No charges were filed; according to one journalist, Irwin told officials he would not repeat the action. The incident prompted the Queensland Government to change its crocodile-handling laws, banning children and untrained adults from entering crocodile enclosures.


title: Steve Irwin

text: In June 2004, allegations were made that he disturbed wildlife (namely whales, seals and penguins) while filming "The Crocodile Hunter" episode "Ice Breaker" in Antarctica. The matter was subsequently closed without charges being laid.


title: Steve Irwin

text: After questions arose in 2003 about Irwin being paid $175,000 worth of taxpayers' money to appear in a television advertisement and his possible political ties, Irwin told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) that he was a conservationist and did not choose sides in politics. His comments describing Australian Prime Minister John Howard as the 'greatest leader in the world' earned him scorn in the media.


title: Steve Irwin

text: In response to questions of Australia's problems with overgrazing, salinity, and erosion, Irwin responded: "Cows have been on our land for so long that Australia has evolved to handle those big animals". "The Sydney Morning Herald" concluded with the opinion that his message was confusing and amounted to "eating roos and crocs is bad for tourism, and therefore more cruel than eating other animals".


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev (; born 14 September 1965) is a Russian politician who has been serving as the deputy chairman of the Security Council of Russia since 2020. Medvedev also served as the president of Russia between 2008 and 2012 and prime minister of Russia between 2012 and 2020.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: Medvedev was elected president in the 2008 election. He was regarded as more liberal than his predecessor, Vladimir Putin, who was also appointed prime minister during Medvedev's presidency. Medvedev's top agenda as president was a wide-ranging modernisation programme, aiming at modernising Russia's economy and society, and lessening the country's reliance on oil and gas. During Medvedev's tenure, the New START nuclear arms reduction treaty was signed by Russia and the United States, Russia emerged victorious in the Russo-Georgian War, and recovered from the Great Recession. Medvedev also launched an anti-corruption campaign, despite later being accused of corruption himself.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: He served a single term in office and was succeeded by Putin following the 2012 presidential election. Medvedev was then appointed by Putin as prime minister. He resigned along with the rest of the government on 15 January 2020 to allow Putin to make sweeping constitutional changes; he was succeeded by Mikhail Mishustin on 16 January 2020. On the same day, Putin appointed Medvedev to the new office of deputy chairman of the Security Council.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: In the views of some analysts, Medvedev's presidency did seem to promise positive changes, both at home and in ties with the West, signaling "the possibility of a new, more liberal period in Russian politics"; however, he later seemed to adopt increasingly radical positions.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: Dmitry Medvedev was born on 14 September 1965 in Leningrad, in the Soviet Union. His father, Anatoly Afanasyevich Medvedev (November 1926 – 2004), was a chemical engineer teaching at the Leningrad State Institute of Technology. Dmitry's mother, Yulia Veniaminovna Medvedeva (née Shaposhnikova, born 21 November 1939), studied languages at Voronezh University and taught Russian at Herzen State Pedagogical University. Later, she would also work as a tour guide at Pavlovsk Palace. The Medvedevs lived in a 40m apartment at 6 Bela Kun Street in the Kupchino Municipal Okrug (district) of Leningrad. Dmitry was his parents' only child. The Medvedevs were regarded at the time as a Soviet intelligentsia family. His maternal grandparents were Ukrainians whose surname was Kovalev, originally Koval. Medvedev traces his family roots to the Belgorod region.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: As a child, Medvedev was intellectually curious, described by his first grade teacher Vera Smirnova as a "dreadful why-asker". After school, he would spend some time playing with his friends before hurrying home to work on his assignments. In the third grade, Medvedev studied the ten-volume "Small Soviet Encyclopedia" belonging to his father. In the second and third grades, he showed interest in dinosaurs and memorised primary Earth's geologic development periods, from the Archean up to the Cenozoic. In the fourth and fifth grades he demonstrated interest in chemistry, conducting elementary experiments. He was involved to some degree with sport. In grade seven, his adolescent curiosity blossomed through his relationship with Svetlana Linnik, his future wife, who was studying at the same school in a parallel class. This apparently affected Medvedev's school performance. He calls the school's final exams in 1982 a "tough period when I had to mobilize my abilities to the utmost for the first time in my life."


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: In the autumn of 1982, 17-year-old Medvedev enrolled at Leningrad State University to study law. Although he also considered studying linguistics, Medvedev later said he never regretted his choice, finding his chosen subject increasingly fascinating, stating that he was lucky "to have chosen a field that genuinely interested him and that it was really 'his thing'". Fellow students described Medvedev as a correct and diplomatic person who in debates presented his arguments firmly, without offending.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: During his student years, Medvedev was a fan of the English rock bands Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, and Deep Purple. He was also fond of sports, and participated in athletic competitions in rowing and weight-lifting.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: He graduated from the Leningrad State University Faculty of Law in 1987 (together with Ilya Yeliseyev, Anton Ivanov, Nikolay Vinnichenko and Konstantin Chuychenko, who later became associates). After graduating, Medvedev considered joining the prosecutor's office to become an investigator however, he took an opportunity to pursue graduate studies as the civil law chair, deciding to accept three budget-funded post-graduate students to work at the chair itself.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: In 1990, Medvedev defended his dissertation titled, "Problems of Realisation of Civil Juridical Personality of State Enterprise" and received his Doctor of Juridical Science ("Candidate of Juridical Sciences") degree in civil law.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: Anatoly Sobchak, a major democratic politician of the 1980s and 1990s was one of Medvedev's professors at the university. In 1988, Medvedev joined Sobchak's team of democrats and served as the de facto head of Sobchak's successful campaign for a seat in the new Soviet parliament, the Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: After Sobchak's election campaign Medvedev continued his academic career in the position of docent at his alma mater, now renamed Saint Petersburg State University. He taught civil and Roman law until 1999. According to one student, Medvedev was a popular teacher; "strict but not harsh". During his tenure Medvedev co-wrote a popular three-volume civil law textbook which over the years has sold a million copies. Medvedev also worked at a small law consultancy firm which he had founded with his friends Anton Ivanov and Ilya Yeliseyev, to supplement his academic salary.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: In 1990, Anatoly Sobchak returned from Moscow to become chairman of the Leningrad City Council. Sobchak hired Medvedev who had previously headed his election campaign. One of Sobchak's former students, Vladimir Putin, became an adviser. The next summer, Sobchak was elected Mayor of the city, and Medvedev became a consultant to City Hall's Committee for Foreign Affairs. It was headed by Putin.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: In November 1993, Medvedev became the legal affairs director of Ilim Pulp Enterprise (ILP), a St. Petersburg-based timber company. Medvedev aided the company in developing a strategy as the firm launched a significant expansion. Medvedev received 20% of the company's stock. In the next seven years Ilim Pulp Enterprise became Russia's largest lumber company with an annual revenue of around $500 million. Medvedev sold his shares in ILP in 1999. He then took his first job at the central government of Russia. The profits realised by Medvedev are unknown.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: In June 1996, Medvedev's colleague Vladimir Putin was brought into the Russian presidential administration. Three years later, on 16 August 1999, he became Prime Minister of Russia. Three months later, in November 1999, Medvedev became one of several from St. Petersburg brought in by Vladimir Putin to top government positions in Moscow. On 31 December, he was appointed deputy head of the presidential staff, becoming one of the politicians closest to future President Putin. On 17 January 2000, Dmitry Medvedev was promoted to 1st class Active State Councillor of the Russian Federation (the highest federal state civilian service rank) by the Decree signed by Vladimir Putin as acting President of Russia. During the 2000 presidential elections, he was Putin's campaign manager. Putin won the election with 52.94% of the popular vote. Medvedev was quoted after the election commenting he thoroughly enjoyed the work and the responsibility calling it "a test of strength".


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: As president, Putin launched a campaign against corrupt oligarchs and economic mismanagement. He appointed Medvedev chairman of gas company Gazprom's board of directors in 2000 with Alexei Miller. Medvedev put an end to the large-scale tax evasion and asset stripping by the previous corrupt management. Medvedev then served as deputy chair from 2001 to 2002, becoming chair for the second time in June 2002, a position which he held until his ascension to presidency in 2008. During Medvedev's tenure, Gazprom's debts were restructured and the company's market capitalisation grew from $7.8 billion in 2000 to $300 billion in early 2008. Medvedev headed Russia's negotiations with Ukraine and Belarus during gas price disputes.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: In October 2003, Medvedev replaced Alexander Voloshin as presidential chief of staff. In November 2005, Medvedev moved from the presidential administration of the government when Putin appointed him as first deputy prime minister of Russia. In particular, Medvedev was made responsible for the implementation of the National Priority Projects focusing on improving public health, education, housing and agriculture. The program saw an increase of wages in healthcare and education and construction of new apartments but its funding, 4% of the federal budget, was not enough to significantly overhaul Russia's infrastructure. According to opinion polls, most Russians believed the money invested in the projects had been spent ineffectively.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: Following his appointment as first deputy prime minister, many political observers began to regard Medvedev as a potential candidate for the 2008 presidential elections, although Western observers widely believed Medvedev was too liberal and too pro-Western for Putin to endorse him as a candidate. Instead, Western observers expected the candidate to arise from the ranks of the so-called siloviki, security and military officials many of whom were appointed to high positions during Putin's presidency. The silovik Sergei Ivanov and the administrator-specialist Viktor Zubkov were seen as the strongest candidates. In opinion polls which asked Russians to pick their favourite successor to Putin from a list of candidates not containing Putin himself, Medvedev often came out first, beating Ivanov and Zubkov as well as the opposition candidates. In November 2006, Medvedev's trust rating was 17%, more than double than that of Ivanov. Medvedev's popularity was probably boosted by his high-profile role in the National Priority Projects.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: Many observers were surprised when on 10 December 2007, President Putin introduced Medvedev as his preferred successor. This was staged on TV with four parties suggesting Medvedev's candidature to Putin, and Putin then giving his endorsement. The four pro-Kremlin parties were United Russia, Fair Russia, Agrarian Party of Russia and Civilian Power. United Russia held its party congress on 17 December 2007 where by secret ballot of the delegates, Medvedev was officially endorsed as their candidate in the 2008 presidential election. He formally registered his candidacy with the Central Election Commission on 20 December 2007 and said he would step down as chairman of Gazprom, since under the current laws, the president is not permitted to hold another post. His registration was formally accepted as valid by the Russian Central Election Commission on 21 January 2008. Describing his reasons for endorsing Medvedev, Putin said:


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: As 2 March 2008 election approached, the outgoing president, Vladimir Putin, remained the country's most popular politician. An opinion poll by Russia's independent polling organisation, the Levada Center, conducted over the period 21–24 December 2007 indicated that when presented a list of potential candidates, 79% of Russians were ready to vote for Medvedev if the election was immediately held. The other main contenders, the Communist Gennady Zyuganov and the LDPR's Vladimir Zhirinovsky both received in 9% in the same poll. Much of Putin's popularity transferred to his chosen candidate, with 42% of the survey responders saying that Medvedev's strength came from Putin's support to him.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: In his first speech after being endorsed, Medvedev stated that, as president, he would appoint Vladimir Putin to the post of prime minister to head the Russian government. Although constitutionally barred from a third consecutive presidential term, such a role would allow Putin to continue as an influential figure in Russian politics. Putin pledged that he would accept the position of prime minister should Medvedev be elected president. Although Putin had pledged not to change the distribution of authority between the president and prime minister, many analysts expected a shift in the center of power from the presidency to the prime minister post when Putin assumed the latter under a Medvedev presidency. Election posters portrayed the pair side by side with the slogan "Together We Win" (""). Medvedev vowed to work closely with Putin once elected.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: In December 2007, in preparation for his election campaign, Medvedev promised that funding of the National Priority Projects would be raised by 260 billion rubles for 2008. Medvedev's election campaign was relatively low-key and, like his predecessor, Medvedev refused to take part in televised debates, citing his high workload as first deputy prime minister as the reason. Instead, Medvedev preferred to present his views on his election website Medvedev2008.ru.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: In January 2008, Medvedev launched his campaign with stops in the oblasts. On 22 January 2008, Medvedev held what was effectively his first campaign speech at Russia's second Civic Forum, advocating a liberal-conservative agenda for modernising Russia. Medvedev argued that Russia needed "decades of stable development" because the country had "exhausted its share of revolutions and social upheavals back in the twentieth century". Medvedev therefore emphasised liberal modernisation while still aiming to continue his predecessor's agenda of stabilisation. On 15 February 2008, Medvedev held a keynote speech at the Fifth Krasnoyarsk Economic Forum, saying that:


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: In the Krasnoyarsk speech, Medvedev harshly condemned Russia's "legal nihilism" and highlighted the need to ensure the independence of the country's judicial system and the need for an anti-corruption program. Economically, Medvedev advocated private property, economic deregulation and lower taxes. According to him, Russia's economy should be modernised by focusing on four "I"s: institutions, infrastructure, innovation and investment.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: Medvedev was elected President of Russia on 2 March 2008. The final election results gave him 70.28% (52,530,712) of votes with a turnout of 69.78% of registered voters. The main contenders, Gennady Zyuganov and Vladimir Zhirinovsky received 17.72% and 9.35% respectively. Three-quarters of Medvedev's vote was Putin's electorate. According to surveys, had Putin and Medvedev both run for president in the same elections, Medvedev would have received 9% of the vote.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: The fairness of the election was disputed by international observers. Andreas Gross, head of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) mission, stated that the elections were "neither free nor fair". Moreover, the few western vote monitors bemoaned the inequality of candidate registration and the abuse of administrative resources by Medvedev allowing blanket television coverage. Russian programmer Shpilkin analysed the results of Medvedev's election and came to the conclusion that the results were falsified by the election committees. However, after the correction for the alleged falsification factor, Medvedev still came out as the winner although with 63% of the vote instead of 70%.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: On 7 May 2008, Dmitry Medvedev took an oath as the third president of the Russian Federation in a ceremony held in the Grand Kremlin Palace. After taking the oath of office and receiving a gold chain of double-headed eagles symbolising the presidency, he stated:


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: His inauguration coincided with the celebration of the Victory Day on 9 May. He attended the military parade at Red Square and signed a decree to provide housing to war veterans.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: On 8 May 2008, Dmitry Medvedev appointed Putin Prime Minister of Russia as he had promised during his election campaign. The nomination was approved by the State Duma with a clear majority of 392–56, with only Communist Party of the Russian Federation deputies voting against.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: 12 May 2008, Putin proposed the list of names for his new cabinet which Medvedev approved. Most of the personnel remained unchanged from the period of Putin's initial presidency but there were several high-profile changes. The Minister of Justice, Vladimir Ustinov was replaced by Aleksandr Konovalov; the Minister of Energy, Viktor Khristenko was replaced with Sergei Shmatko; the Minister of Communications, Leonid Reiman was replaced with Igor Shchyogolev and Vitaliy Mutko received the newly created position of Minister of Sports, Tourism and Youth policy.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: In the presidential administration, Medvedev replaced Sergei Sobyanin with Sergei Naryshkin as the head of the administration. The head of the Federal Security Service, Nikolai Patrushev, was replaced with Alexander Bortnikov. Medvedev's economic adviser Arkady Dvorkovich and his press attaché Natalya Timakova became part of the president's core team. Medvedev's old classmate from his student years, Konstantin Chuichenko, became his personal assistant.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: Medvedev was reported to have taken care not to upset the balance of different factions in the presidential administration and in the government. However, the influence of the powerful security/military-related siloviki weakened after Medvedev's inauguration for the first time in 20 years. In their place, Medvedev brought in the so-called civiliki, a network of St. Petersburg civil law scholars preferred by Medvedev for high positions.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: From the beginning of Medvedev's tenure, the nature of his presidency and his relationship with Putin was subject to considerable media speculation. In a unique situation in the Russian Federation's political history, the constitutionally powerful president was now flanked with a highly influential prime minister (Putin), who also remained the country's most popular politician. Previous prime ministers had proven to be almost completely subordinate to the president and none of them had enjoyed strong public approval, with Yevgeny Primakov and Putin's previous tenure (1999–2000) as prime minister under Boris Yeltsin being the only exceptions. Journalists quickly dubbed the new system with a practically dual-headed executive as "government by tandem" or "tandemocracy", with Medvedev and Putin called the "ruling tandem".


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: Daniel Treisman has argued that early in Medvedev's presidency, Putin seemed ready to disengage and started withdrawing to the background. In the first year of Medvedev's presidency, two external events threatening Russia—the late-2000s financial crisis and the 2008 South Ossetia war—changed Putin's plans and caused him to resume a stronger role in Russian politics.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: The long-lingering conflict between Georgia and the separatist regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which were supported by Russia, escalated during the summer of 2008.On 1 August 2008, the Russian-backed South Ossetian forces started shelling Georgian villages, with a sporadic response from Georgian peacekeepers in the area. Intensifying artillery attacks by the South Ossetians broke a 1992 ceasefire agreement. To put an end to these attacks, the Georgian army units were sent in to the South Ossetian conflict zone on 7 August. Georgian troops took control of most of Tskhinvali, a separatist stronghold, in hours.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: At the time of the attack, Medvedev was on vacation and Putin was attending the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. At about 1:00 a.m on 8 August, Medvedev held a telephone conversation with the Defence Minister, Anatoliy Serdyukov. It is likely that during this conversation, Medvedev authorised the use of force against Georgia. The next day, Medvedev released a statement, in which he said:


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: In the early hours of 8 August, Russian military forces launched a counter-offensive against Georgian troops. After five days of heavy fighting, all Georgian forces were routed from South Ossetia and Abkhazia. On 12 August, Medvedev ended the Russian military operation, entitled "Operation to force Georgia into peace". Later on the same day, a peace deal brokered by the French and EU president, Nicolas Sarkozy, was signed between the warring parties. On 26 August, after being unanimously passed by the State Duma, Medvedev signed a decree recognising South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states. The five-day conflict cost the lives of 48 Russian soldiers, including 10 peacekeepers, while the casualties for Georgia was 170 soldiers and 14 policemen.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: The Russian popular opinion of the military intervention was broadly positive, not just among the supporters of the government, but across the political spectrum. Medvedev's popularity ratings soared by around 10 percentage points to over 70%, due to what was seen as his effective handling of the war.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: Shortly in the aftermath of the conflict, Medvedev formulated a 5-point strategy of the Russian foreign policy, which has become known as the Medvedev Doctrine. On 30 September 2009, the European Union–sponsored "Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Conflict in Georgia" stated that, while preceded by months of mutual provocations, "open hostilities began with a large-scale Georgian military operation against the town of Tskhinvali and the surrounding areas, launched in the night of 7 to 8 August 2008."


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: In September 2008, Russia was hit by repercussions of the global financial crisis. Before this, Russian officials, such as the Finance Minister, Alexei Kudrin, had said they believed Russia would be safe, due to its stable macroeconomic situation and substantial reserves accumulated during the years of growth. Despite this, the recession proved to be the worst in the history of Russia, and the country's GDP fell by over 8% in 2009. The government's response was to use over a trillion rubles (more than $40 billion U.S. Dollars) to help troubled banks, and initiated a large-scale stimulus programme, lending $50 billion to struggling companies. No major banks collapsed, and minor failures were handled in an effective way. The economic situation stabilised in 2009, but substantial growth did not resume until 2010. Medvedev's approval ratings declined during the crisis, dropping from 83% in September 2008 to 68% in April 2009, before recovering to 72% in October 2009 following improvements in the economy.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: According to some analysts, the economic crisis, together with the 2008 South Ossetia war, delayed Medvedev's liberal programme. Instead of launching the reforms, the government and the presidency had to focus their efforts on anti-crisis measures and handling the foreign policy implications of the war.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: In the economic sphere, Medvedev has launched a modernisation programme which aims at modernising Russia's economy and society, decreasing the country's dependency on oil and gas revenues and creating a diversified economy based on high technology and innovation. The programme is based on the top 5 priorities for the country's technological development: efficient energy use; nuclear technology; information technology; medical technology and pharmaceuticals; and space technology in combination with telecommunications.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: In November 2010, on his annual speech to the Federal Assembly Medvedev stressed for greater privatisation of unneeded state assets both at the federal and regional level, and that Russia's regions must sell-off non-core assets to help fund post-crisis spending, following in the footsteps of the state's planned $32 billion 3-year asset sales. Medvedev said the money from privatisation should be used to help modernise the economy and the regions should be rewarded for finding their own sources of cash.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: Medvedev has named technological innovation one of the key priorities of his presidency. In May 2009, Medvedev established the Presidential Commission on Innovation, which he will personally chair every month. The commission comprises almost the entire Russian government and some of the best minds from academia and business. Medvedev has also said that giant state corporations will inevitably be privatised, and although the state had increased its role in the economy in recent years, this should remain a temporary move.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: On 7 August 2009, Dmitry Medvedev instructed the prosecutor general, Yury Chayka, and the chief of the Audit Directorate of the Presidential Administration of Russia, Konstantin Chuychenko, to probe state corporations, a new highly privileged form of organisation earlier promoted by President Putin, to question their appropriateness.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: In June 2010, he visited the Twitter headquarters in Silicon Valley declaring a mission to bring more high-tech innovation and investment to the country.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: Medvedev made reforming Russia's law enforcement one of his top agendas, the reason for which was a shooting started by a police officer in April 2009 in one of Moscow's supermarkets. Medvedev initiated the reform at the end of 2009, with a presidential decree issued on 24 December ordering the government to begin planning the reform. In early August 2010, a draft law was posted on the Internet at the address for public discussion. The new website received more than 2,000 comments within 24 hours. Based on citizen feedback, several modifications to the draft were made. On 27 October 2010, President Medvedev submitted the draft to the lower house of the Russian parliament, the State Duma. The State Duma voted to approve the bill on 28 January 2011, and the upper house, the Federation Council followed suit on 2 February 2011. On 7 February 2011, President Medvedev signed the bill into law. The changes came into effect on 1 March 2011.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: Under the reform, the salaries of Russian police officers were increased by 30%, Interior Ministry personnel were cut and financing and jurisdiction over the police were centralised. Around 217 billion rubles ($7 billion) were allocated to the police reform from the federal budget for the time frame 2012–2013.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: On 19 May 2008, Medvedev signed a decree on anti-corruption measures, which included creation of an Anti-Corruption Council. In the first meeting of the council on 30 September 2008, Medvedev said:


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: In July 2008, Medvedev's "National Anti-Corruption Plan" was published in the official Rossiyskaya Gazeta newspaper. It suggested measures aimed at making sanctions for corruption more severe, such as legislation to disqualify state and municipal officials who commit minor corruption offences and making it obligatory for officials to report corruption. The plan ordered the government to prepare anti-corruption legislation based on these suggestions. The bill that followed, called "On Corruption Counteraction" was signed into law on 25 December 2008 as Federal Law N 273-FZ. According to Professor Richard Sakwa, "Russia now at last had serious, if flawed, legislation against corruption, which in the context was quite an achievement, although preliminary results were meagre." Russia's score in Corruption Perceptions Index rose from 2.1 in 2008 to 2.2 in 2009, which "could be interpreted as a mildly positive response to the newly adopted package of anti-corruption legislation initiated and promoted by president Medvedev and passed by the Duma in December 2008", according to Transparency International's CPI 2009 Regional Highlights report.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: On 13 April 2010, Medvedev signed presidential decree No. 460 which introduced the "National Anti-Corruption Strategy", a midterm government policy, while the plan is updated every two years. The new strategy stipulated increased fines, greater public oversight of government budgets and sociological research. According to Georgy Satarov, president of the Indem think tank, the latest decree "probably reflected Medvedev's frustration with the fact that the 2008 plan had yielded little result."


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: In January 2011, President Medvedev admitted that the government had so far failed in its anti-corruption measures.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: On 4 May 2011, Medvedev signed the Federal Law "On Amendments to the Criminal Code and the Code of Administrative Offences of the Russian Federation to Improve State Anti-Corruption Management". The bill raised fines for corruption to up to 100 times the amount of the bribe given or received, with the maximum fine being 500 million rubles ($18.3 million).


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: President Medvedev initiated a new policy called "Our New School" and instructed the government to present a review on the implementation of the initiative every year.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: Regional elections held on 1 March 2009 were followed by accusations of administrative resources being used in support of United Russia candidates, with the leader of A Just Russia, Sergey Mironov, being especially critical. Responding to this, Medvedev met with the chairman of the Central Election Commission of Russia, Vladimir Churov, and called for moderation in the use of administrative resources. In August 2009, Medvedev promised to break the near-dominant position of United Russia party in national and regional legislatures, stating that "New democratic times are beginning". The next regional elections were held on 11 October 2009 and won by United Russia with 66% of the vote. The elections were again harshly criticised for the use of administrative resources in favour of United Russia candidates. Communist, LDPR and A Just Russia parliamentary deputies staged an unprecedented walkout on 14–15 October 2009 as a result. Although Medvedev often promised to stand up for more political pluralism, Professor Richard Sakwa observed, after the 2009 regional elections, a gulf formed between Medvedev's words and the worsening situation, with the question arising "whether Medvedev had the desire or ability to renew Russia's political system."


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: On 26 October 2009, the First Deputy Chief of Staff, Vladislav Surkov, warned that democratic experiments could result in more instability and that more instability "could rip Russia apart". On 6 November 2010, Medvedev vetoed a recently passed bill which restricted antigovernment demonstrations. The bill, passed on 22 October, prohibited anyone who had previously been convicted of organising an illegal mass rally from seeking permission to stage a demonstration.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: In late November 2010, Medvedev made a public statement about the damage being done to Russia's politics by the dominance of the United Russia party. He claimed that the country faced political stagnation if the ruling party would "degrade" if not challenged; "this stagnation is equally damaging to both the ruling party and the opposition forces." In the same speech, he said Russian democracy was "imperfect" but improving. BBC Russian correspondents reported that this came on the heels of discontent in political circles and opposition that the authorities, in their view, had too much control over the political process.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: In his first State of the Nation address to the Russian parliament on 5 November 2008, Medvedev proposed to change the Constitution of Russia in order to increase the terms of the president and State Duma from four to six and five years respectively (see 2008 Amendments to the Constitution of Russia).


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: Medvedev on 8 May 2009, proposed to the legislature and on 2 June signed into law an amendment whereby the chairperson of the Constitutional Court and his deputies would be proposed to the parliament by the president rather than elected by the judges, as was the case before.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: In May 2009, Medvedev set up the Presidential Commission of the Russian Federation to Counter Attempts to Falsify History to the Detriment of Russia's Interests. In August of the same year, he stated his opposition to the equating of Stalinism with Nazism. Medvedev denied the involvement of the Soviet Union in the Soviet invasion of Poland together with Nazi Germany. Arguments of the European Union and of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) were called a lie. Medvedev said it was Joseph Stalin who in fact "ultimately saved Europe".


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: On 30 October 2009, due to the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Political Repressions, President Medvedev published a statement in his video blog. He stressed that the memory of national tragedies is as sacred as the memory of victory. Medvedev recalled that for twenty of the pre-war years entire layers and classes of the Russian people were destroyed (this period includes the Red Terror mainly under the lead of Felix Dzerzhinsky, the crimes of Joseph Stalin and other evil deeds of the Soviet Bolsheviks). Nothing can take precedence over the value of human life, said the president.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: In a speech on 15 September 2009, Medvedev stated that he approved of the abolition in 2004 of direct popular elections of regional leaders, effectively in favour of their appointment by the Kremlin, and added that he didn't see a possibility of a return to direct elections even in 100 years.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: In 2009, Medvedev proposed an amendment to the election law which would decrease the State Duma election threshold from 7% to 5%. The amendment was signed into law in Spring 2009. Parties receiving more than 5% but less than 6% of the votes would henceforward be guaranteed one seat, while parties receiving more than 6% but less than 7% will get two seats. These seats will be allocated before the seats for parties with over 7% support.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: Russian election law stipulates that parties with representatives in the State Duma are free to put forward a list of candidates for the Duma elections, while parties with no current representation need first to collect signatures. Under the 2009 amendments initiated by Medvedev, the number of signatures required was lowered from 200,000 to 150,000 for the 2011 Duma elections. In subsequent elections, only 120,000 signatures will be required.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: In August, during the third month of Medvedev's presidency, Russia took part in the 2008 South Ossetia war with Georgia, which drove tension in Russia–United States relations to a post–Cold War high. On 26 August, following a unanimous vote of the Federal Assembly of Russia, Medvedev issued a presidential decree officially recognising Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states, an action condemned by the G8. On 31 August 2008, Medvedev shifted Russia's foreign policy under his government, built around five main principles:


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: In his address to the parliament on 5 November 2008 he also promised to deploy the Iskander missile system and radar-jamming facilities in Kaliningrad Oblast to counter the U.S. missile defence system in Eastern Europe. Following U.S. President Barack Obama's 17 September 2009 decision to not deploy missile-defense elements in the Czech Republic and Poland, Dmitry Medvedev said he decided against deploying Iskander missiles in Russia's Kaliningrad Oblast.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: In 2011, during the performance at the Yaroslavl Global Policy Forum, President Medvedev has declared that the doctrine of Karl Marx on class struggle is extremist and dangerous. Progressive economic stratification which can be less evident in period of economic growth, leads to acute conflicts between rich and poor people in period of downturn. In such conditions, the doctrine on class struggle is being revived in many regions of the world, riots and terrorist attacks become reality, by opinion of Medvedev.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: In August 2014, President Barack Obama said: "We had a very productive relationship with President Medvedev. We got a lot of things done that we needed to get done."


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: During the official visit to Armenia on 7 April 2016, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev visited the Tsitsernakaberd Memorial Complex to pay tribute to the victims of the Armenian genocide. Medvedev laid flowers at the Eternal Fire and honoured the memory of the victims with a minute of silence. Russia recognised the crime in 1995.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: Although the Russian constitution clearly apportions the greater power in the state to the president, speculation arose over the question of whether it was Medvedev or Prime Minister Vladimir Putin who actually wielded the most power. According to London "Daily Telegraph", "Kremlin-watchers" note that Medvedev uses the more formal form of 'you' (Вы, 'vy') when addressing Putin, while Putin addresses Medvedev with the less formal 'ty' (ты).


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: According to a poll conducted in September 2009 by the Levada Center in which 1,600 Russians took part, 13% believed Medvedev held the most power, 32% believed Putin held the most power, 48% believed that the two shared equal levels of influence, and 7% failed to answer. However, Medvedev attempted to affirm his position by stating, "I am the leader of this state, I am the head of this state, and the division of power is based on this."


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: As both Putin and Medvedev could have run for president in the 2012 general elections, there was a view from some analysts that some of Medvedev's contemporaneous actions and comments at the time were designed to separate his image from Putin's. BBC News suggested these might include his dealings in late 2010 with NATO and the United States, possibly designed to show himself as being better able to deal with Western nations, and comments in November about the need for a stronger opposition in Russian politics, to present himself as a moderniser. BBC News observed other analysts considered the split to be exaggerated, that Medvedev and Putin were "trying to maximise support for the authorities by appealing to different parts of society". There was belief that the court verdict on former oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his partner Platon Lebedev, both of whom funded opposition parties before their arrests, would indicate whether or not Putin was "still calling all the shots".


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: On 24 September 2011, while speaking at the United Russia party congress, Medvedev recommended Vladimir Putin as the party's presidential candidate and revealed that the two men had long ago cut a deal to allow Putin to return to the presidency in 2012 after he was forced to stand down in 2008 by term limits. This switch was termed by many in the media as "rokirovka", the Russian term for the chess move "castling". Medvedev said he himself would be ready to perform "practical work in the government". Putin accepted Medvedev's offer the same day, and backed him for the position of the prime minister of Russia in case the United Russia, whose list of candidates in the elections Medvedev agreed to head, were to win in the upcoming Russian legislative election. The same day, the Russian Orthodox Church endorsed the proposal by President Medvedev to let Putin return to the post of president of Russia.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: On 22 December 2011, in his last state of the nation address in Moscow, Medvedev called for comprehensive reform of Russia's political system — including restoring the election of regional governors and allowing half the seats in the State Duma to be directly elected in the regions. "I want to say that I hear those who talk about the need for change, and understand them", Medvedev said in an address to the Duma. "We need to give all active citizens the legal chance to participate in political life." However, the opposition to the ruling United Russia party of Medvedev and Prime Minister Putin dismissed the proposals as political posturing that failed to adequately address protesters who claimed 4 December election was rigged.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: On 7 May, on his last day in office, Medvedev signed the last documents as the head of state: in the sphere of civil society, protection of human rights and modernisation. He approved the list of instructions by the results of the meeting with the presidential council on civil society and human rights, which was held on 28 April. Medvedev also approved with his decree "Presidential programme for raising skills of engineers for 2012–2014" for modernisation and technological development of the Russian economy.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: On 7 May 2012, the same day he ceased to be the president of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev was nominated by President Vladimir Putin to the office of prime minister. On 8 May 2012, the State Duma of the Russian Federation voted on the nomination submitted by the new president, and confirmed the choice of Medvedev to the post. Putin's United Russia party, now led by Medvedev, secured a majority of the Duma's seats in the 2011 legislative election, winning 49% of the vote, and 238 of the 450 seats. Medvedev's nomination to the office of prime minister was approved by the State Duma in a 299–144 vote.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: Medvedev took office as prime minister of Russia also on 8 May 2012, after President Vladimir Putin signed the decree formalising his appointment to the office.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: On 19 May 2012, Dmitry Medvedev took part in the G-8 Summit at Camp David, in the United States, replacing President Putin, who decided not to represent Russia in the summit. Medvedev was the first prime minister to represent Russia at a G-8 meeting. On 21 May 2012, his Cabinet was appointed and approved by the president. On 26 May, he was approved and officially appointed as the chairman of United Russia, the ruling party. Earlier in the same week Medvedev was officially joined the party and thereby became Russia's first prime minister affiliated to a political party.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: In the wake of the 2014 Ukrainian revolution, Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula. On 31 March 2014, Medvedev visited Crimea after the peninsula became part of Russia on 18 March. During his visit he announced the formation of the Federal Ministry for Crimea Affairs.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: On 7 May 2018, Dmitry Medvedev was nominated as prime minister by Vladimir Putin for another term. On 8 May, Medvedev was confirmed by the State Duma as prime minister, with 374 votes in favour. On 15 May, Putin approved the structure and on 18 May the composition of the Cabinet.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: In March 2017, discontentment was triggered through Medvedev's depiction in an investigative film by the Anti-Corruption Foundation titled "He Is Not Dimon to You". This sparked demonstrations in central Moscow, with the crowd chanting "Medvedev, resign!" as well as "Putin is a thief!" In the summer of 2018, country-wide protests took place against the retirement age hike introduced by Medvedev's government. The plan was unexpectedly announced by the government on 14 June, which coincided with the opening day of the 2018 FIFA World Cup hosted by Russia. As a result of the demonstrations, the ratings of Medvedev as well as President Putin significantly declined. Following the 2019 Siberia wildfires, Medvedev proposed revising regulatory acts on extinguishing fires in regions, and instructed to consult with foreign experts in developing proposals to fight with wildfires.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: Medvedev, along with his entire Cabinet resigned on 15 January 2020, after Putin delivered the Presidential Address to the Federal Assembly, in which he proposed several amendments to the constitution. Medvedev stated that he was resigning to allow President Putin to make the significant constitutional changes suggested by Putin regarding shifting power away from the presidency. Medvedev said that the constitutional changes would "significantly change Russia's balance of power". Putin accepted the resignation.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: Although Medvedev had ostensibly resigned voluntarily (part 1 of Article 117 of the constitution), the Executive Order that was released stated that Putin had dismissed the cabinet as per Article 83 (c) and part 2 of Article 117 of the constitution. "Kommersant" reported that the use of these sections revealed that it was Putin who had sacked Medvedev and that the resignation was not voluntary but forced, since these sections give power to the president to dissolve the government without explanation or motivation.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: On 16 January 2020, Medvedev was appointed to the post of deputy chairman of the Security Council of Russia. His salary was set at 618,713 rubles (8,723.85 USD). In a July interview with "Komsomolskaya Pravda", Medvedev said he retains "good friendly relations" with President Putin, which was in contrast with the opinion of many circles that his departure from the role of prime minister was a result of a rift in the domestic policies of both men.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: In February 2022, after Russia was suspended from the Council of Europe due to its invasion of Ukraine, and subsequently announced its intention to withdraw from the organization, Medvedev stated that while the decision to suspend Russia was "unfair", it was also a "good opportunity" to reinstate the death penalty in Russia. He also stated that Russia didn't need diplomatic relations with the West and that the sanctions imposed on the country gave it good reason to pull out of dialogue on nuclear stability and potentially New START.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: In response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, on 6 April 2022 the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the United States Department of the Treasury added Medvedev to its list of persons sanctioned pursuant to .


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: On 6 July 2022, Medvedev wrote on Telegram that it would be "crazy to create tribunals or courts for the so-called investigation of Russia's actions", claiming the idea of "punishing a country that has one of the largest nuclear potentials" may potentially pose "a threat to the existence of humanity." Medvedev accused the United States of creating "chaos and devastation around the world under the guise of 'true democracy'", concluding his message by saying "the US and its useless stooges should remember the words of the Bible: 'Judge not, lest you be judged; so that one day the great day of His wrath will not come to their house, and who can stand?'"


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: On 27 July 2022, Medvedev shared a map on Telegram, described as predictions of "Western analysts", showing Ukraine, including its occupied territories, mostly absorbed by Russia, as well as Poland, Romania and Hungary.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: Medvedev was interviewed at length by Darius Rochebin of French TV broadcaster "La Chaîne Info" on 27 August 2022.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: In late 2022 Medvedev said that any weapons in Russia's arsenal, including strategic nuclear weapons, could be used to protect territories annexed to Russia from Ukraine. He also said that referendums organized by Russia-installed and separatist authorities would take place in large swathes of Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory, and that there was "no turning back".


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: Medvedev is married and has a son named Ilya Dmitrevich Medvedev (born 1995). His wife, Svetlana Vladimirovna Medvedeva, was both his childhood friend and school sweetheart. They married several years after their graduation from secondary school in 1982.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: Medvedev is a fan of British hard rock, listing Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd, and Deep Purple as his favourite bands. He is a collector of their original vinyl records and has previously said that he has collected all of the recordings of Deep Purple. As a youth, he made copies of their records, even though these bands were then on the official state-issued blacklist. In February 2008, Medvedev and Sergei Ivanov attended a Deep Purple concert in Moscow together.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: During a visit to Serbia, Medvedev received the highest award of the Serbian Orthodox Church, the Order of St. Sava, for "his contribution to the unity of the world Orthodoxy and his love to the Serbian people."


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: Medvedev always reserves an hour each morning and again each evening to swim and weight train. He swims twice a day. He also jogs, plays chess, and practices yoga. Among his hobbies are reading the works of Mikhail Bulgakov and he is also a fan of the "Harry Potter" series after asking J. K. Rowling for her autograph when they met during the G-20 London Summit in April 2009. He is also a fan of football and follows his hometown professional football team, FC Zenit Saint Petersburg.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: Medvedev is an avid amateur photographer. In January 2010, one of his photographs was sold at a charity auction for 51 million rubles (US$1,750,000), making it one of the most expensive ever sold. The photo was purchased by Mikhail Zingarevich, a co-founder and member of the board of directors of the Ilim Group at which Medvedev worked as a lawyer in the 90s.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: Medvedev's reported 2007 annual income was $80,000, and he reported approximately the same amount as bank savings. Medvedev's wife reported no savings or income. They live in an upscale apartment house ""Zolotye Klyuchi"" in Moscow. Despite this supposedly modest income, a video by anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny purports to show "the vast trove of mansions, villas and vineyards accumulated" by Medvedev.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: On the Russian-language Internet, Medvedev is sometimes associated with the "Medved" meme, linked to "padonki" slang, which resulted in many ironic and satirical writings and cartoons that blend Medvedev with a bear. (The word "medved" means "bear" in Russian and the surname "Medvedev" is a patronymic which means "of the bears".) Medvedev is familiar with this phenomenon and takes no offence, stating that the web meme has the right to exist.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: Medvedev speaks English, in addition to his native Russian, but during interviews he speaks only Russian.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: In September 2016, opposition leader Alexei Navalny published a report with information about Dmitry Medvedev's alleged summer residence ("dacha") – an 80 hectare estate with plethora of houses, a ski run, a cascading swimming pool, three helipads and purpose-built communications towers. The estate even includes a house for ducks, which received public ridicule and led to ducks becoming a protest symbol in Russia a year later. The area is surrounded by a six-foot (1.82 meter) fence and is allegedly 30 times the size of Red Square, the iconic square in Moscow. This summer residence is an expensively renovated 18th century manor called and located in Plyos on the shore of Volga River.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: In March 2017, Navalny and the Anti-Corruption Foundation published another in-depth investigation of properties and residences used by Medvedev and his family. A report called "He Is Not Dimon To You" shows how Medvedev allegedly owns and controls large areas of land, villas, palaces, yachts, expensive apartments, wineries and estates through complicated ownership structures involving shell companies and foundations. Their total value is estimated at around US$1.2 billion. The report states that the original source of wealth is gifts by Russian oligarchs and loans from state owned banks. An hour long YouTube video in Russian was released together with the report. A month after release, the video had more than 24 million views. Medvedev dismissed the allegations, calling them "nonsense". These revelations have resulted in large protests throughout Russia. Russian authorities responded by arresting protesters in unauthorised protests—hundreds were arrested including Alexei Navalny, which the government called "an illegal provocation". An April 2017 Levada poll found that 45% of surveyed Russians supported the resignation of Medvedev.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: Medvedev wrote two short articles on the subject of his doctoral dissertation in Russian law journals. He is also one of the authors of a textbook on civil law for universities first published in 1991 (the 6th edition of "Civil Law. In 3 Volumes." was published in 2007). He is the author of a university textbook, "Questions of Russia's National Development", first published in 2007, concerning the role of the Russian state in social policy and economic development. He is also the lead co-author of a book of legal commentary entitled, "A Commentary on the Federal Law "On the State Civil Service of the Russian Federation"". This work considers the Russian Federal law on the civil service, which went into effect on 27 July 2004, from multiple perspectives — scholarly, jurisprudential, practical, enforcement- and implementation-related.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: In October 2008, President Medvedev delivered the first podcast at the presidential website. His videoblog posts have also been posted in the official LiveJournal community "blog_medvedev"


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: On 23 June 2011, Medvedev participated in launching of the "Eternal Values" project of RIA Novosti state-operated news agency together with Russian chapter of Wikimedia Foundation. RIA Novosti granted free Creative Commons licences to one hundred of its images, while Medvedev registered as and personally uploaded one of those photographs to Wikimedia Commons.


title: Dmitry Medvedev

text: On 13 April 2009, Medvedev gave a major interview to the "Novaya Gazeta" newspaper. The interview was the first one he had ever given to a Russian print publication and covered such issues as civil society and the social contract, transparency of public officials and Internet development.


title: General Motors

text: The General Motors Company (GM) is an American multinational automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and was the largest in the world for 77 years before losing the top spot to Toyota in 2008.


title: General Motors

text: General Motors operates manufacturing plants in eight countries. Its four core automobile brands are Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, and Cadillac. It also holds interests in Chinese brands Wuling Motors and Baojun as well as DMAX via joint ventures. Additionally, GM also owns the BrightDrop delivery vehicle manufacturer, a namesake Defense vehicles division which produces military vehicles for the United States government and military; the vehicle safety, security, and information services provider OnStar; the auto parts company ACDelco, a namesake financial lending service; and majority ownership in the self-driving cars enterprise Cruise LLC.


title: General Motors

text: In January 2021, GM announced plans to end production and sales of vehicles using internal combustion engines, including hybrid vehicles and plug-in hybrids by 2035, as part of its plan to achieve carbon neutrality by 2040. GM offers more flexible-fuel vehicles, which can operate on either E85 ethanol fuel or gasoline, or any blend of both, than any other automaker.


title: General Motors

text: The company traces itself to a holding company for Buick established on September 16, 1908, by William C. Durant, the largest seller of horse-drawn vehicles at the time. The current entity was established in 2009 after the General Motors Chapter 11 reorganization.


title: General Motors

text: GM is ranked 22nd on the Fortune 500 rankings of the largest United States corporations by total revenue.


title: General Motors

text: By 1900, William C. Durant's Durant-Dort Carriage Company of Flint, Michigan had become the largest manufacturer of horse-drawn vehicles in the United States. Durant was averse to automobiles, but fellow Flint businessman James H. Whiting, owner of Flint Wagon Works, sold him the Buick Motor Company in 1904. Durant formed the General Motors Company in 1908 as a holding company, with partner Charles Stewart Mott, borrowing a naming convention from General Electric. GM's first acquisition was Buick, which Durant already owned, then Oldsmobile on November 12, 1908. Under Durant, GM went on to acquire Cadillac, Elmore, Welch, Cartercar, Oakland (the predecessor of Pontiac), the Reliance Motor Truck Company of Owosso, Michigan, and the Rapid Motor Vehicle Company of Pontiac, Michigan (predecessors of GMC) in 1909.


title: General Motors

text: Durant, with the board's approval, also tried acquiring Ford Motor Company but needed an additional $2 million. Durant over-leveraged GM in making these acquisitions, and was removed by the board of directors in 1910 at the order of the bankers who backed the loans to keep GM in business. The action of the bankers was partially influenced by the Panic of 1910–1911 that followed the earlier enforcement of the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890. In 1911, Charles F. Kettering, with Henry M. Leland, of Dayton Engineering Laboratories Company (DELCO), invented and patented the first electric starter in America. In November 1911, Durant co-founded Chevrolet with Swiss race car driver Louis Chevrolet, who left the company in 1915 after a disagreement with Durant.


title: General Motors

text: GM was reincorporated in Detroit in 1916 as General Motors Corporation and became a public company via an initial public offering. By 1917, Chevrolet had become successful enough that Durant, with the backing of Samuel McLaughlin and Pierre S. du Pont, reacquired a controlling interest in GM. The same year, GM acquired Samson Tractor. Chevrolet Motor Company was consolidated into GM on May 2, 1918, and the same year GM acquired United Motors, a parts supplier founded by Durant and headed by Alfred P. Sloan for $45 million, and the McLaughlin Motor Car Company, founded by R. S. McLaughlin, became General Motors of Canada Limited. In 1919, GM acquired Guardian Frigerator Company, part-owned by Durant, which was renamed Frigidaire. With this acquisition, the General Motors Acceptance Corporation (GMAC), which provides financing to automotive customers, was formed.


title: General Motors

text: In 1920, du Pont orchestrated the removal of Durant once again and replaced him with Alfred P. Sloan. At a time when GM was competing heavily with Ford Motor Company, Sloan established annual model changes, making previous years' models "dated" and created a market for used cars. He also implemented the pricing strategy used by all car companies today. The pricing strategy had Chevrolet, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Buick, and Cadillac priced from least expensive to most, respectively.


title: General Motors

text: In 1921, Thomas Midgley Jr., an engineer for GM, discovered tetraethyllead (leaded gasoline) as an antiknock agent, and GM patented the compound because ethanol could not be patented. This led to the development of higher compression engines resulting in more power and efficiency. The public later realized that lead contained in the gasoline was harmful to various biological organisms including humans. Evidence shows that corporate executives understood the health implications of tetraethyllead from the beginning. As an engineer for GM, Midgley also developed chlorofluorocarbons, which have now been banned due to their contribution to climate change.


title: General Motors

text: Under the encouragement of GM President Alfred P. Sloan Jr., GM acquired Vauxhall Motors for $2.5 million in 1925. The company also acquired an interest in the Yellow Cab Manufacturing Company the same year, and its president, John D. Hertz, joined the board of directors of GM; it acquired the remainder of the company in 1943.


title: General Motors

text: In 1926, the company introduced the Pontiac brand and established the General Motors Group Insurance Program to provide life insurance to its employees. The following year, after the success of the 1927 model of the Cadillac Lasalle designed by Harley Earl, Sloan created the "Art and Color Section" of GM and named Earl as its first director. Earl was the first design executive to be appointed to leadership at a major American corporation. Earl created a system of automobile design that is still practiced today. At the age of 24, Bill Mitchell was recruited by Harley Earl to the design team at GM, and he was later appointed as Chief Designer of Cadillac. After Earl retired in December 1958, Mitchell took over automotive design for GM.


title: General Motors

text: GM acquired Allison Engine Company and began developing a 1,000 horsepower liquid-cooled aircraft engine in 1929. The same year, GM acquired 80% of Opel, which at that time had a 37.5% market share in Europe, for $26 million. It acquired the remaining 20% in 1931.


title: General Motors

text: In the late-1920s, Charles Kettering embarked on a program to develop a lightweight two-stroke diesel engine for possible usage in automobiles. Soon after, GM acquired Electro-Motive Company and the Winton Engine Co., and in 1941, it expanded EMC's realm to locomotive engine manufacturing.


title: General Motors

text: In 1932, GM acquired Packard Electric. not the actual car company, which would merge with Studebaker years later. The following year, GM acquired a controlling interest in North American Aviation and merged it with the General Aviation Manufacturing Corporation.


title: General Motors

text: The GM labor force participated in the formation of the United Auto Workers labor union in 1935, and in 1936 the UAW organized the Flint Sit-Down Strike, which initially idled two key plants in Flint, Michigan, and later spread to 6 other plants including those in Janesville, Wisconsin and Fort Wayne, Indiana. In Flint, police attempted to enter the plant to arrest strikers, leading to violence; in other cities, the plants were shuttered peacefully. The strike was resolved on February 11, 1937, when GM recognized the UAW as the exclusive bargaining representative for its workers and gave workers a 5% raise and permission to speak in the lunchroom.


title: General Motors

text: Jominy & Boegehold of GM invented the Jominy end-quench test for hardenability of carbon steel in 1937, a breakthrough in heat treating still in use today as ASTM A255. GM established Detroit Diesel the next year.


title: General Motors

text: In 1939, the company founded Motors Insurance Corporation and entered the vehicle insurance market. The same year, GM introduced the Hydramatic, the world's first affordable and successful automatic transmission, for the 1940 Oldsmobile.


title: General Motors

text: During World War II, GM produced vast quantities of armaments, vehicles, and aircraft for the Allies of World War II. In 1940, GM's William S. Knudsen served as head of U.S. wartime production for President Franklin Roosevelt, and by 1942, all of GM's production was to support the war. GM's Vauxhall Motors manufactured the Churchill tank series for the Allies, instrumental in the North African campaign. However, its Opel division, based in Germany, supplied the Nazi Party with vehicles. Sloan, head of GM at the time, was an ardent opponent of the New Deal, which bolstered labor unions and public transport, and Sloan admired and supported Adolf Hitler. Nazi armaments chief Albert Speer allegedly said in 1977 that Hitler "would never have considered invading Poland" without synthetic fuel technology provided by General Motors. GM was compensated $32 million by the U.S. government because its German factories were bombed by U.S. forces during the war.


title: General Motors

text: Effective January 28, 1953, Charles Erwin Wilson, then GM president, was named by Dwight D. Eisenhower as United States Secretary of Defense.


title: General Motors

text: In December 1953, GM acquired Euclid Trucks, a manufacturer of heavy equipment for earthmoving, including dump trucks, loaders and wheel tractor-scrapers, which later spawned the Terex brand.


title: General Motors

text: In 1962, GM introduced the first turbo charged engine in the world for a car in the Oldsmobile Cutlass Turbo-Jetfire. Two years later, the company introduced its "Mark of Excellence" logo and trademark at the 1964 New York World's Fair. The company used the mark as their main corporate identifier until 2021.


title: General Motors

text: GM released the Electrovan in 1966, the first hydrogen fuel cell car ever produced. Though fuel cells have existed since the early 1800s, General Motors was the first to use a fuel cell, supplied by Union Carbide, to power the wheels of a vehicle with a budget of "millions of dollars".


title: General Motors

text: In the 1960s, GM was the first to use turbochargers and was an early proponent of V6 engines, but quickly lost interest as the popularity of muscle cars increased. GM demonstrated gas turbine vehicles powered by kerosene, an area of interest throughout the industry, but abandoned the alternative engine configuration due to the 1973 oil crisis.


title: General Motors

text: In partnership with Boeing, GM's Delco Defense Electronics Division designed the Lunar Roving Vehicle, which traversed the surface of the Moon, in 1971. The following year, GM produced the first rear wheel anti-lock braking system for two models: the Toronado and Eldorado.


title: General Motors

text: From 1978 to 1985, GM pushed the benefits of diesel engines and cylinder deactivation technologies. However, it had disastrous results due to poor durability in the Oldsmobile diesels and drivability issues in the Cadillac V8-6-4 variable-cylinder engines.


title: General Motors

text: GM sold Frigidaire in 1979. Although Frigidaire had between $450 million and $500 million in annual revenues, it was losing money.


title: General Motors

text: Robert Lee of GM invented the FeNdB the Neodymium magnet, which was fabricated by rapid solidification, in 1984. This magnet is commonly used in products like a computer hard disk. The same year, GM acquired Electronic Data Systems for $2.5 billion from Ross Perot as part of a strategy by CEO Roger Smith to derive at least 10% of its annual worldwide revenue from non-automotive sources. GM also intended to have EDS handle its bookkeeping, help computerize factories, and integrate GM's computer systems. The transaction made Ross Perot the largest shareholder of GM; however, disagreements with Roger Smith led the company to buy all shares held by Ross Perot for $750 million in 1986.


title: General Motors

text: In a continuation of its diversification plans, GMAC formed GMAC Mortgage and acquired Colonial Mortgage as well as the servicing arm of Norwest Mortgage in 1985. This acquisition included an $11 billion mortgage portfolio. The same year, GM acquired the Hughes Aircraft Company for $5 billion in cash and stock, and merged it into Delco Electronics. The following year, GM acquired 59.7% of Lotus Cars, a British producer of high-performance sports cars.


title: General Motors

text: In 1987, in conjunction with AeroVironment, GM built the Sunraycer, which won the inaugural World Solar Challenge and was a showcase of advanced technology. Much of the technology from Sunraycer found its way into the Impact prototype electric vehicle (also built by Aerovironment) and was the predecessor to the General Motors EV1.


title: General Motors

text: In August 1990, Robert Stempel became CEO of the company, succeeding Roger Smith. GM cut output significantly and suffered losses that year due to the early 1990s recession.


title: General Motors

text: In 1990, GM debuted the General Motors EV1 (Impact) concept, a battery electric vehicle, at the LA Auto Show. It was the first car with zero emissions marketed in the US in over three decades. The Impact was produced as the EV1 for the 1996 model year and was available only via lease from certain dealers in California and Arizona. In 1999–2002, GM ceased production of the vehicles and started to not renew the leases, disappointing many people, allegedly because the program would not be profitable and would cannibalize its existing business. All of the EV1s were eventually returned to General Motors, and except for around 40 which were donated to museums with their electric powertrains deactivated, all were destroyed. The documentary film "Who Killed the Electric Car?" covered the EV1 story.


title: General Motors

text: In 1996, in a return to its automotive basics, GM completed the corporate spin-off of Electronic Data Systems.


title: General Motors

text: In 1997, GM sold the military businesses of Hughes Aircraft Company to Raytheon Company for $9.5 billion in stock and the assumption of debt.


title: General Motors

text: In February 2000, Rick Wagoner was named CEO, succeeding John F. Smith Jr. The next month, GM gave 5.1% of its common stock, worth $2.4 billion, to acquire a 20% share of Fiat.


title: General Motors

text: In May 2004, GM delivered the first full-sized pickup truck hybrid vehicles, the 1/2-ton Chevrolet Silverado/GMC Sierra trucks. These mild hybrids did not use electrical energy for propulsion, like GM's later designs. Later, the company debuted another hybrid technology, co-developed with DaimlerChrysler and BMW, in diesel-electric hybrid powertrain manufactured by Allison Transmission for transit buses. Continuing to target the diesel-hybrid market, the Opel Astra diesel engine hybrid concept vehicle was rolled out in January 2005. Later that year, GM sold its Electro-Motive Diesel locomotive division to private equity firms Berkshire Partners and Greenbriar Equity Group.


title: General Motors

text: GM paid $2 billion to sever its ties with Fiat in 2005, severing ties with the company due to an increasingly contentious dispute.


title: General Motors

text: GM began adding its "Mark of Excellence" emblem on all new vehicles produced and sold in North America in mid-2005. However, after the reorganization in 2009, the company no longer added the logo, saying that emphasis on its four core divisions would downplay the GM logo.


title: General Motors

text: In 2005, Edward T. Welburn was promoted to the newly created position of vice president, GM Global Design, making him the first African American to lead a global automotive design organization and the highest-ranking African American in the US motor industry at that time. On July 1, 2016, he retired from General Motors after 44 years. He was replaced by Michael Simcoe.


title: General Motors

text: In 2006, GM introduced a bright yellow gas cap on its vehicles to remind drivers that cars can operate using E85 ethanol fuel. They also introduced another hybrid vehicle that year, the Saturn Vue Green Line.


title: General Motors

text: In 2008, General Motors committed to engineering half of its manufacturing plants to be landfill-free. In order to achieve its landfill-free status, production waste is recycled or reused in the manufacturing process. Continuing their environmental-conscious development, GM started to offer the 2-mode hybrid system in the Chevrolet Tahoe, GMC Yukon, Cadillac Escalade, and pickup trucks.


title: General Motors

text: In late 2008, the world's largest rooftop solar power installation was installed at GM's manufacturing plant in Zaragoza. The Zaragoza solar installation has about of roof at the plant and contains about 85,000 solar panels. The installation was created, owned and operated by Veolia Environment and Clairvoyant Energy, which leases the rooftop area from GM.


title: General Motors

text: In March 2009, after the company had received $17.4 billion in bailouts but was not effective in a turnaround, President Barack Obama forced the resignation of CEO Rick Wagoner.


title: General Motors

text: General Motors filed for a government-backed Chapter 11 reorganization on June 8, 2009. On July 10, 2009, the original General Motors sold assets and some subsidiaries to an entirely new company, including the trademark "General Motors". Liabilities were left with the original GM, renamed Motors Liquidation Company, freeing the companies of many liabilities and resulting in a new GM.


title: General Motors

text: Through the Troubled Asset Relief Program, the United States Department of the Treasury invested $49.5 billion in General Motors and recovered $39 billion when it sold its shares on December 9, 2013, resulting in a loss of $10.3 billion. The Treasury invested an additional $17.2 billion into GM's former financing company, GMAC (now Ally Financial). The shares in Ally were sold on December 18, 2014, for $19.6 billion netting the government $2.4 billion in profit, including dividends. A study by the Center for Automotive Research found that the GM bailout saved 1.2 million jobs and preserved $34.9 billion in tax revenue.


title: General Motors

text: In 2009, the company shut down its Saturn Corporation and Pontiac brands after failing to find a buyer for the brands, and sold Hummer to Tengzhong.


title: General Motors

text: In June 2009, at the request of Steven Rattner, lead adviser to President Barack Obama on the Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry, Edward Whitacre Jr., who had led a restructuring of AT&T was named chairman of the company.


title: General Motors

text: In July 2009, after 40 days of bankruptcy protection, the company emerged from the government-backed General Motors Chapter 11 reorganization.


title: General Motors

text: In December 2009, the board of directors forced CEO Frederick Henderson to resign and Edward Whitacre Jr. was named interim CEO.


title: General Motors

text: In 2010, GM acquired Americredit, a subprime lender, for $3.5 billion, which was merged into GM Financial.


title: General Motors

text: In November 2010, GM again became a public company via an initial public offering that was one of the world's top five largest IPOs to date.


title: General Motors

text: In 2010, GM introduced the Chevrolet Volt as an extended-range electric vehicle (EREV), an electric vehicle with back-up generators powered by gasoline, or series plug-in hybrid. GM delivered the first Volt in December 2010. The Chevrolet Volt was a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle with back-up generators powered by gasoline (range-extended electric vehicle). General Motors built a prototype two-seat electric vehicle with Segway Inc. An early prototype of the Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility vehicle—dubbed Project P.U.M.A. – was presented in New York at the 2009 New York International Auto Show.


title: General Motors

text: In July 2011, General Motors invested $7.5 million in solar-panel provider Sunlogics to install solar panels on GM facilities.


title: General Motors

text: In October 2011, GM introduced the Chevrolet Spark EV, an all-electric car version of the third generation Chevrolet Spark, the first all-electric passenger car marketed by General Motors in the U.S. since the General Motors EV1 was discontinued in 1999. The production version was unveiled at the 2012 Los Angeles Auto Show. The Chevrolet Spark was released in the U.S. in selected markets in California and Oregon in June 2013. Retail sales began in South Korea in October 2013.


title: General Motors

text: In 2011, GM revived one of its idled U.S. factories for the production of a subcompact car in Orion, Michigan, with the creation of 1,500 jobs. This was the first time that GM produced a subcompact car in the United States since the Chevrolet Chevette ended production in 1986. Production started in late 2011 with the Chevrolet Sonic. GM ended production of the Sonic at Orion Assembly on October 19, 2020.


title: General Motors

text: In 2012, PSA Group and General Motors formed an alliance, and GM acquired 7% of PSA Group. The ownership was divested on December 13, 2013, generating gross proceeds of €250 million.


title: General Motors

text: On July 2, 2013, GM and Honda announced a partnership to develop fuel cell systems and hydrogen storage technologies for the 2020 time frame. GM and Honda are leaders in fuel cell technology, ranking first and second, respectively, in total fuel cell patents filed between 2002 and 2012, with more than 1,200 between them according to the Clean Energy Patent Growth Index.


title: General Motors

text: In late 2013, after losing approximately $18 billion over 12 years, GM began phasing out mainstream sales of Chevrolet in Europe and finished by late 2015 to focus on Opel/Vauxhall. The Chevrolet brand had been reintroduced in Europe in 2005, selling mostly rebranded Daewoo Motors cars acquired by GM Korea.


title: General Motors

text: On January 15, 2014, Mary Barra was named chief executive officer, succeeding Daniel Akerson. Barra also joined the GM board.


title: General Motors

text: The 2014 General Motors recall, which was due to faulty ignition switches, and was linked to at least 124 deaths, was estimated to cost the company $1.5 billion.


title: General Motors

text: In October 2015, the second-generation Volt was launched in the United States and Canada. The second generation had an upgraded drivetrain and improved battery system that increased the all-electric range from .


title: General Motors

text: On January 4, 2016, GM invested $500 million in Lyft. This was GM's first investment in ride-sharing.


title: General Motors

text: In March 2016, General Motors acquired Cruise, a San Francisco self-driving vehicle start-up, to develop self-driving cars that could be used in ride-sharing fleets.


title: General Motors

text: In October 2016, GM began production of the Chevrolet Bolt EV, the first ever mass market all-electric car with a range of more than . The battery pack and most drivetrain components were built by LG Corporation and assembled in GM's plant in Lake Orion, Michigan.


title: General Motors

text: In December 2016, General Motors began testing self-driving vehicles on public roads in Michigan after Governor Rick Snyder signed bills legalizing the operation of autonomous vehicles.


title: General Motors

text: On April 20, 2017, the Government of Venezuela seized the General Motors Venezolana plant in Valencia, Carabobo.


title: General Motors

text: In October 2017, GM acquired Strobe, a solid state LIDAR company. Strobe's prototypes produce brief "chirps" of frequency-modulated (FM) laser light, where the frequency within each chirp varies linearly. Measuring the phase and frequency of the echoing chirp allows the system to directly measure both the distance and the velocity of objects on the road ahead. Strobe, Cruise, and GM will work together to develop the technology for future self-driving cars.


title: General Motors

text: In October 2018, Honda invested $2.75 billion in GM's self-driving car unit, including an initial investment of $275 million, followed by $2 billion within a year.


title: General Motors

text: In November 2018, GM announced it would lay off more than 14,000 employees in North America, comprising 15% of its workforce and 25% of its executive staff in the region. The company ceased production at three assemblies: Lordstown Assembly in Ohio, Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly in Michigan and Oshawa in Canada and two engine/transmission (White Marsh, Maryland, and Warren, Michigan) plants in 2019.


title: General Motors

text: In March 2019, the company announced that it would begin production of a new EV model in Lake Orion, Michigan.


title: General Motors

text: In May 2019, General Motors received pushback on its plan to release a fleet of up to 2,500 modified Chevrolet Bolt electric vehicles. The company planned to release these vehicles by Q4 of 2019 as part of initiatives to build a controlled self-driving fleet.


title: General Motors

text: In January 2020, GM announced the return of the Hummer nameplate as a series of electric vehicles to be sold from within the GMC portfolio, known as the GMC Hummer EV. The first vehicle, a pickup truck variant with over 1,000 horsepower, shipped in December 2021.


title: General Motors

text: On March 21, 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, General Motors began assisting Ventec Life Systems to produce ventilators.


title: General Motors

text: In September 2020, GM announced a partnership with Nikola Corporation to engineer and manufacture the Nikola Badger, and GM made an equity investment in Nikola. The Badger will use GM's Ultium battery technology, and GM will be an exclusive fuel cell supplier for all of Nikola's class 7/8 trucks. Following fraud allegations from short-seller Hindenburg Research concerning the mechanical capabilities of the Badger pickup truck along with separate sexual misconduct allegations involving former CEO Trevor Milton, GM scaled back its investment with Nikola via a smaller revised deal.


title: General Motors

text: In September 2020, GM and Honda announced an alliance to cooperate on purchasing, research, and vehicle development.


title: General Motors

text: In November 2020, GM committed to increased capital investment in electric vehicles to over half of new capital expenditures, totalling $27 billion over five years.


title: General Motors

text: On January 8, 2021, GM introduced a new logo alongside a tagline "EVerybody in", with the capitalized "EV" as a nod to the company's commitment to electric vehicles. GM's new logo used negative space to create the idea of an electric plug in the "M" of the logo.


title: General Motors

text: At the January 2021 Consumer Electronics Show, GM launched BrightDrop, its brand for all-electric commercial vehicles.


title: General Motors

text: On January 28, 2021, GM announced that it will end production and sales of fossil-fuel vehicles (including hybrids and plug-in hybrids) by 2035 as part of its plan to reach carbon neutrality by 2040.


title: General Motors

text: In 2021, GM announced plans to establish an automotive battery and battery pack laboratory in Michigan. GM will be responsible for battery management systems and power electronics, thermal management, as well as the pack assembly. An existing GM facility at Brownstown Township was chosen to be upgraded as a battery pack plant. LG Chem's U.S. subsidiary, Compact Power of Troy, Michigan, has been building the prototype packs for the development vehicles and will continue to provide integration support and act as a liaison for the program.


title: General Motors

text: in April 2021, after being criticized for not advertising enough in black-owned businesses, General Motors said that it will spend 2% of 2021's advertising budget in Black-owned media and 4% in 2022 until reaching 8% in 2025.


title: General Motors

text: In April 2021, GM announced a joint venture with LG, to build a $2.3 billion plant to build batteries for electric vehicles.


title: General Motors

text: General Motors has launched the largest investment project in its home state of Michigan, announcing plans to invest $7 billion to convert a plant to produce electric cars and build a new battery plant. Besides that General Motors has announced investment of $154 million into its Western New York Lockport Components plant.


title: General Motors

text: In August 2022, the company announced that it would reinstate its quarterly dividend at a rate of 9 cents per share, compared to 38 cents per share when it was first cut in April 2020, and increase its share buyback program to $5 billion from $3.3 billion.


title: General Motors

text: Also in August 2022, the company announced that it would offer buyouts to the roughly 2,000 Buick dealers in the US that didn't want to make investments as the company switches to an all-electric lineup. This move came after a similar move with Cadillac dealers that reduced their presence by about a third.


title: General Motors

text: In September 2022, the firm announced it would introduce an electric version of its popular Chevy Equinox in the third quarter of 2023, priced around $30,000 to leave it less expensive than comparable vehicles. This move was another step in the firm's decision to go all-electric.


title: General Motors

text: In October 2022, the company announced the creation of GM Energy, a new unit that would provide battery packs, EV chargers, and software to help residential and business customers to help with charging and electrical grid disruptions. Offerings would be tailored to specifics homes and businesses. At the time of the announcement, the company said some products would be provided by third party partners.


title: General Motors

text: For the Chinese market, most of its cars are manufactured within China. Shanghai GM, a joint venture with the Chinese company SAIC Motor, was created with Canadian Regal 1990 on March 25, 1997. The Shanghai GM plant was officially opened on December 15, 1998, when the first Chinese-built Buick came off the assembly line. The SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile joint-venture is also selling microvans under the Wuling brand (34% owned by GM).


title: General Motors

text: Buick is strong in China from its early introduction by the Canadian Buick sold to the last Emperor of China, later being led by the Buick Regal 1990 subcompact. The last emperor of China owned a Buick.


title: General Motors

text: The Cadillac brand was introduced in China in 2004, starting with exports to China. GM pushed the marketing of the Chevrolet brand in China in the mid-2000s as well. As part of this push, GM transferred Buick Sail to that brand as an attempt to appeal to Chinese middle-class buyers looking for small and affordable cars.


title: General Motors

text: In August 2009, FAW-GM, a joint venture between GM and FAW Group that mainly produced FAW Jiefang light-duty trucks, was formed. GM left the joint venture in 2019, and the Jiefang brand is now wholly owned by FAW.


title: General Motors

text: In 2011, GM opened an auto research center as part of a US250 million corporate campus in Shanghai to develop gasoline-hybrid cars, electric vehicles and alternative fuel vehicles, engines, and new technologies. A second phase opened in 2012.


title: General Motors

text: SAIC-GM-Wuling established the low-cost Baojun brand to better compete with domestic rivals, Chery Automobile, Geely Automobile and BYD Auto for first-time buyers of cars priced around US$10,000.


title: General Motors

text: GM maintains a dealership presence in Japan, called , previously known as "GM Auto World Shop". Current GM Japan dealerships were either former Saturn dealerships or Isuzu dealership locations. GM products are also currently sold by the company Yanase Co., Ltd. since 1915.


title: General Motors

text: In August 2011, GM announced plans to build a $150 million 190,300 square-foot plant in Bekasi, West Java, Indonesia, which would produce 40,000 passenger cars per year for the Southeast Asian market. The plant opened on March 11, 2013. The plant was shut in 2015.


title: General Motors

text: GM withdrew the Chevrolet brand from Indonesia in March 2020. However, GM will continue to sell the Wuling and Baojun badged vehicles in Indonesia through the SAIC-GM-Wuling joint venture.


title: General Motors

text: In October 2011, the South Korea free trade agreement opened the South Korean auto market to American-made cars. GM owns 77.0% of its joint venture in South Korea, GM Korea, which mainly designs and produces Chevrolet and Holden branded vehicles.


title: General Motors

text: In 2018, the company approached the Korea Development Bank to participate in a $2.7 billion debt swap issued by its Korean subsidiary.


title: General Motors

text: In February 2018, General Motors shut one factory in South Korea. The plant was affected by the pullout of the Chevrolet brand from Europe.


title: General Motors

text: In 2008, GM Uzbekistan was established, owned 25% by GM. It produced Ravon, Chevrolet, and Daewoo branded vehicles. This interest was sold to the Government of Uzbekistan in 2019.


title: General Motors

text: In 1928, GM became the first car maker to manufacture cars in India. GM entered the market for the second time in 1996. The older Halol, Gujarat plant, with a capacity of 50,000 units, stopped production on April 28, 2017, and was sold to MG Motor India. GM continues to manufacture cars for the export market from its Talegaon Dhamdhere, Maharashtra plant, which has a capacity of 160,000 units annually.


title: General Motors

text: In February 2020, GM discontinued the Chevrolet brand in Thailand. GM withdrew from the Thai market and sold its Rayong plant to Great Wall Motors.


title: General Motors

text: GM has a long history in Egypt which began in the 1920s with the assembly of cars and light pickup trucks for the local market. In the mid of the 1950s, GM withdrew from the Egyptian market. Some years later, the Ghabbour Brothers began to assemble Cadillac, Chevrolet, and Buick models up to the 1990s.


title: General Motors

text: Since 1983, GM and Al-Monsour Automotive have owned General Motors Egypt, which is currently the only manufacturer of traditional GM branded vehicles in Egypt.


title: General Motors

text: In the 1920s, Miller Brothers Nigeria was founded as an importer of commercial vehicles of the Bedford brand in the country. In 1949, the company opened its own assembly plant and operated under the name Niger/Nigeria Motors. In 1965 the plant and its distribution network were split into different companies and renamed Federated Motors Industries. In 1991 the company was taken in by a joint venture between General Motors and UACN of Nigeria.


title: General Motors

text: Formed in 1975, General Motors East Africa (GMEA) was the largest assembler of commercial vehicles in the region, exporting them from Kenya to East and Central African countries, including Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, Rwanda and Burundi. Its facility located in Nairobi assembled a wide range of Isuzu trucks and buses, including the popular Isuzu N-Series versatile light commercial vehicle, TF Series pick-ups, and Isuzu bus chassis. In addition to assembly, GMEA also marketed the Chevrolet Spark and Optra. In 2017, GM sold its 57.7% stake in General Motors East Africa to Isuzu, and GMEA was renamed Isuzu East Africa Limited.


title: General Motors

text: General Motors began operating in South Africa in 1913 through its wholly owned subsidiary, General Motors South Africa, and was a market that briefly had its own local brand, Ranger. Following the passage of the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act in 1986, GM was forced to divest from South Africa, and GMSA became the independent Delta Motor Corporation. GM purchased a 49% stake in Delta in 1997 following the end of apartheid and acquired the remaining 51% in 2004, reverting the company to its original name. By 2014, it was targeting the production of 50,000 cars a year but was being hampered by national labor unrest, strikes, and protests. GM exited the South Africa market in 2017, selling its parts business to Isuzu.