List of presidents of Russia

For Russian leaders prior to introduction of presidency, see List of leaders of Russia.

The office of the president of Russia is the highest authority in the Russian Federation. The holder is the federation's head of state and has formal presidency over the State Council as well as being the commander in chief of the Russian Armed Forces. The office was introduced in 1918 after the February Revolution with the current office emerging after a referendum of 1991.^[1] During the Soviet period of history, Russia was de jure headed by collective bodies such as the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, since the Soviet theory of government denied the very necessity of the presidential office. The office of the President of the Soviet Union was introduced in 1990 during Mikhail Gorbachev's unsuccessful reforms of the Soviet Union's one-party communist state. Gorbachev became first and last president of the Union.^[2] His tenure was marked by the legal and political confrontation with Russia and other republics of the USSR which eventually led to their full independence in late 1991.

Presidents

Main article: President of Russia

Nonpartisan         CPSU         NDR         OVR         Unity         United Russia         Acting PMs
		Portrait	President	Term of office	Term	Previous office	Prime Minister
	1		Boris Yeltsin Борис Ельцин 1931–2007	10 July 1991 – 31 December 1999 (resigned from office) (8 years, 174 days)	1 (1991) [note 1]	Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of Russia (1990–1991)		Ivan Silayev
								Himself
								Yegor Gaidar
								Viktor Chernomyrdin
					2 (1996)
								Sergei Kiriyenko
								Viktor Chernomyrdin
								Yevgeny Primakov
								Sergei Stepashin
								Vladimir Putin
	2		Vladimir Putin Владимир Путин Born 1952 (age 72)	7 May 2000 – 7 May 2008 (acting from 31 December 1999) (8 years, 128 days)	3 (2000)	Prime Minister of Russia (1999–2000)
								Mikhail Kasyanov[note 2]
								Mikhail Fradkov
					4 (2004)
								Viktor Zubkov
	3		Dmitry Medvedev Дмитрий Медведев Born 1965 (age 59)	7 May 2008 – 7 May 2012 (4 years, 0 days)	5 (2008)	First Deputy Prime Minister of Russia (2005–2008)		Vladimir Putin
	4		Vladimir Putin Владимир Путин Born 1952 (age 72)	7 May 2012 – Present (13 years, 4 days)	6 (2012)	Prime Minister of Russia (2008–2012)		Viktor Zubkov
								Dmitry Medvedev
					7 (2018)
								Mikhail Mishustin
					8 (2024)

Acting presidents

Main article: Acting President of Russia

See also: President of the Soviet Union § Acting President

Nonpartisan      NDR      Unity
	Portrait	Acting President	Term of office	Main post	Notes
		Alexander Rutskoy Александр Руцкой Born 1947 (age 77)	22 September – 4 October 1993	Vice President	Acting president during the 1993 constitutional crisis. His powers were not recognized by Boris Yeltsin.
		Viktor Chernomyrdin Виктор Черномырдин 1938–2010 (aged 72)	5–6 November 1996	Prime Minister	Acting president during Boris Yeltsin's heart surgery.
		Vladimir Putin Владимир Путин Born 1952 (age 72)	31 December 1999 – 7 May 2000		Acting president after Yeltsin's early resignation.

Timeline

Graph of change of life expectancy in the Russian SFSR and Russia under various leaders

Subsequent public service

Two presidents held other high offices after leaving the presidency.

President	Presidency	Subsequent service
Vladimir Putin	2000–2008	Prime Minister (2008–2012)
		President (2012–present)
Dmitry Medvedev	2008–2012	Prime Minister (2012–2020)
		Deputy Chairman of the Security Council (2020–present)

See also

• President of Russia
• List of leaders of Russia
  • List of Russian monarchs (before 1917)
  • List of heads of state of Russia (from 1917)
• Politics of Russia
• Government of Russia

Notes

1. Elected as President of the Russian SFSR shortly before the collapse of the Soviet Union. Continued to serve his first term until 1996 despite adopting a new constitution after a military conflict with the parliament in 1993.
2. Acting Prime Minister until 17 May 2000.