came to power with a wave of high expectations. On 12 June 1991 he was elected president of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic with 57% of the vote, becoming the first popularly elected president. But Yeltsin never recovered his popularity after a series of economic and political crises in Russia in the 1990s. The Yeltsin era was marked by widespread corruption, economic collapse, and enormous political and social problems. By the time he left office, Yeltsin had an approval rating of two percent by some estimates. Throughout his presidential terms and into his second term as the Prime Minister, Putin has enjoyed high approval ratings amongst the Russian public. During his eight years in office, the economy bounced back from crisis, seeing GDP increase sixfold, poverty cut more than half and average monthly salaries increase from $80 to $640, or by 150% in real rates. At the same time, his conduct in office has been questioned by domestic dissenters, as well as foreign governments and human rights organizations, for his handling of internal conflicts in Chechnya and Dagestan, his record on internal human rights and freedoms, his relations with former Soviet Republics, and his relations with the so-called oligarchs: Russian businessmen with a high degree of power and influence within both the Russian Government and economy. This was seen by the Kremlin as a series of anti-Russian propaganda attacks orchestrated by western opponents and exiled oligarchs. Medvedev was appointed First Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian government on 14 November 2005. Formerly Vladimir Putin's chief of staff, he was also the Chairman of Gazprom's board of directors, a post he had held, for the second time, since 2000. On 10 December 2007, he was informally endorsed as a candidate for the forthcoming presidential elections by the largest Russian political party, United Russia, and officially endorsed on 17 December 2007. Medvedev's candidacy was supported by former President Vladimir Putin and pro-presidentialparties. As technocrat and political :wikt:appointment|appointee, Medvedev - Putin's former Chief of Staff and one-time rival to Sergey Ivanov - had never held elective office before 2009. Medvedev chose Putin as his Prime Minister; in 2012, Putin ran for the Presidency, won, and appointed Medvedev as Prime Minister.
Presidents
Acting Presidents
Subsequent public service
Two presidents held other high federal offices after leaving the presidency.
Living former presidents
As of , there is only one living former de jure president and one former acting president. The most recent death of a former de jure president was that of Boris Yeltsin on 23 April 2007, aged 76 and the most recent death of a former acting president was that of Viktor Chernomyrdin on 3 November 2010, aged 72. Mikhail Gorbachov, former President of the Soviet Union, is also living.
List by age
The youngest person to assume the presidency was Dmitri Medvedev, who succeeded to the office at the age of 42 years. The oldest person to be elected to a first term was Boris Yeltsin, who became president at the age of 60 years. To date he is also the longest-lived president, dying at the age of 76. Of currently living presidents, the oldest is technically Alexander Rutskoy, who was formally acting president during the 1993 coup, but apart from Rutskoy the oldest is Vladimir Putin. The youngest is Dmitry Medvedev.
