Russia's first deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev won a landslide victory in Sunday's presidential election, becoming the successor of incumbent President Vladimir Putin, who is barred constitutionally from seeking a consecutive third term and is to step down in May after eight years in office.
Following is a timeline of highlights of Putin presidency:
-- Aug. 1999: President Boris Yeltsin names Putin as acting prime minister.
-- Dec. 1999: Yeltsin resigns on New Year's Eve; Putin becomes acting president.
-- March 2000: Putin is elected president of Russia.
-- May 2000: Putin is sworn in as Russia's second democratically elected president.
-- June 2000: Putin holds a summit in Moscow with U.S. President Bill Clinton. The two leaders sign agreements to tackle new threats to global stability and also agree to bridge differences over missile defense system.
-- Aug. 2000: The Kursk nuclear-powered submarine sinks in the Barents Sea, killing all 118 sailors on board. Putin's image suffers a jolt as he comments on the crisis for the first time four days later.
-- June 2001: Putin and U.S. President George W. Bush meet for their first summit in the Slovenian capital, Ljubljana.
-- May 2002: Putin and Bush publicly differ in Moscow. Putin denies Russia could help Iran develop nuclear weapons.
-- June 2003: Russia closes the TVS television channel, the only countrywide TV station not controlled by the state.
-- March 2004: Putin is re-elected as Russian president, winning more than 70 percent of the vote.
-- Sept. 2004: A group of terrorists take more than 1,000 people hostage in a school in Beslan, North Ossetia-Alania, triggering a three-day standoff that ends in gun battle. More than 300 hostages are killed, half of them children.
-- April 2005: Putin becomes the first Russian leader to visit Israel and the Palestinian territories, as part of a Middle East tour.
-- Jan. 2006: Russian gas monopoly Gazprom halts gas supplies to Ukraine after Kiev rejects its terms on natural gas deliveries and transit. Europe's energy supplies are affected.
-- July 2006: Russia hosts its first Group of Eight summit in St. Petersburg, as bilateral relations between Moscow and Washington soured.
-- Dec. 2007: Putin publicly voices his support for First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev as his favored successor and starts to support him in the election campaign.
-- Dec. 2007: Putin is named by the Time magazine "Person of the Year" for 2007.
Source:Xinhua
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