UPI: Russia's next president, Dmitri Medvedev, known to his friends as Dima, is a fan of the rock groups Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. He swims a mile every day, and he is very flattered when anyone tells him he looks the spitting image of Russia's last czar, Nicholas II.
And now that President Vladimir Putin has named Medvedev as the preferred successor, Medvedev at 42 will be the youngest incumbent of the Kremlin throne since the last czar.
He is married to his childhood sweetheart, Svetlana, who he met at the age of 7 in their native St. Petersburg. His wife now chairs the council of trustees of the faith-based program Spiritual and Moral Culture of Russia's Younger Generation. Launched with the blessing of Patriarch Alexy, it promotes the establishment of Orthodox Church orphanages, educational and research expeditions for young people and pilgrimages to Russian patriotic and religious shrines.
Welcome to the new Russia, which is starting to look like a modernized version of the old Russia before the Communists took over and the revolution of 1917 toppled the czar and marginalized the Orthodox Church.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment