14 December 2007

Meet the First Lady in Waiting.

Moscow Times: As world attention falls on Dmitry Medvedev, the spotlight has flickered and fallen on everything around him -- including his wife, Svetlana, who seems certain to succeed Lyudmila Putina.

Should she become first lady, Svetlana Medvedeva -- who reportedly counts singer Alla Pugachyova and designer Valentin Yudashkin as friends -- will enter a world that differs little from the one she inhabits now.

Medvedev's childhood sweetheart, Medvedeva has received a medal from the Orthodox Church for her social work, has been a curator of fashion shows in Milan and has shown a distinct lack of political ambition.

Judging by previous presidential wives, it's just the combination that Russians like in a first lady.

'What can I say about Sveta?' Irina Grigorovskaya, who taught both of them for five years at School No. 305 in St. Petersburg, said by telephone Tuesday. 'She was a good student and a very pretty girl. By nature she always seemed like a homebody to me, a humble girl. It was obvious that she would grow into a real woman.

'She was very nice, easy to talk to, and I think she has stayed the same,' Grigorovskaya added.

The two were married in 1989 and have a 12-year-old son, Ilya. Medvedeva studied at a financial academy in the northern capital.

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