Vladimir Putin was born in Leningrad on October 7, 1952.

In 1975, he graduated with a degree in law from Leningrad State University. He later earned a Ph.D. degree in economics.

After graduation, Mr. Putin was assigned to work in the KGB. From 1985 to 1990, he worked in East Germany.

In 1990, he became assistant to the rector of Leningrad State University responsible for international affairs.

His next position was an advisor to the chairman of the Leningrad City Council.

In June 1991, he became chairman of the St. Petersburg City Council’s International Relations Committee and,  starting with 1994, he combined this post with the position of First Deputy Chairman of the St. Petersburg City Government (First Deputy Mayor).

In August 1996, he was appointed deputy head of the President’s Administrative Directorate (Property Management Directorate).

In March 1997, he became deputy head of the Executive Office of the President (Presidential Administration) and head of the Central Supervision and Inspections Directorate.

In May 1998, he was promoted to first deputy head of the Presidential Administration.

In July 1998, he was appointed director of the Federal Security Service and, as of March 1999, he combined this position with that of Secretary of the Security Council.

In August 1999, he was appointed Prime Minister.

On December 31, 1999, he became acting President.

On March 26, 2000, he was elected President of Russia and was inaugurated as president on May 7, 2000.

On March 14, 2004, he was elected President of Russia for the second term.

On March 4, 2012, he was once again elected President of Russia replacing Dmitriy Medvedev.

Speaks German and English.

Married to Lyudmila Putina. They have two daughters: Maria (1985), Katerina (1986).

Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev, President of Russia

Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev, President of Russia

Born September 14, 1965, in Leningrad.

Graduated from the Faculty of Law of Leningrad State University in 1987 and completed his post-graduate studies at Leningrad State University in 1990. Holds a PhD in law and the title of associate professor.

1990-1999: Lectured at St Petersburg State University.

At the same time, between 1990-1995, was an adviser to the Chairman of the Leningrad City Council and an expert consultant to the St Petersburg City Hall’s Committee for External Affairs.

1999: Deputy Government Chief of Staff.

1999-2000: Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office.

2000-2003: First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office.

2000-2001: Chairman of the Board of Directors of OAO Gazprom, in 2001 – Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors of OAO Gazprom, from June 2002 – Chairman of the Board of Directors of OAO Gazprom.

October 2003-November 2005: Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office.

In November 2005, appointed First Deputy Prime Minister.

March 2, 2008: Elected President of the Russian Federation.

Married to Svetlana Vladimirovna Medvedeva. The Medvedevs have a son, Ilya (born 1995).

Source: http://eng.kremlin.ru/articles/D_Medvedev.shtml

ADDRESS
Ilinka Str, No 23
103132, Moscow, Russia

François Gérard Georges Hollande (born 12 August 1954) is a French politician who is the President-elect of France. He also served as the First Secretary of the French Socialist Party from 1997 to 2008 and as a Deputy of the National Assembly of France for Corrèze’s 1st Constituency since 1997, and previously represented that seat from 1988 to 1993. He was the Mayor of Tulle from 2001 to 2008, and was the President of the Corrèze General Council from 2008 to 2012. He was elected as President of France on 6 May 2012, defeating the incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy.

Hollande was born in Rouen, Seine-Maritime, Upper Normandy, to a middle-class family. His mother, Nicole Frédérique Marguerite Tribert (1927–2009), was a social worker, and his father, Georges Gustave Hollande, an ear, nose, and throat doctor who “had once run for the extreme right in local politics”. The surname “Hollande” is “believed to come from Calvinist ancestors who escaped Holland (the Netherlands) in the 16th century and took the name of their old country.” Hollande was raised Catholic.

He attended Saint Jean-Baptiste de La Salle boarding school, then HEC Paris, École nationale d’administration, and the Institut d’Études Politiques de Paris (Paris Institute of Political Studies). He graduated from ENA in 1980. He lived in the United States in the summer of 1974 while he was a university student. Immediately after graduating, he was employed to work as a councillor in the Court of Audit.

After volunteering as a student to work for François Mitterrand’s ultimately unsuccessful campaign in the 1974 presidential election, Hollande joined the Socialist Party five years later. He was quickly spotted by Jacques Attali, a senior adviser to Mitterrand, who arranged for Hollande to stand for election to the French National Assembly in 1981 in Corrèze against future President Jacques Chirac, who was then the Leader of the Rally for the Republic, a Neo-Gaullist party. Hollande lost to Chirac in the first round, although he would go on to become a Special Adviser to the newly-elected President Mitterrand, before serving as a staffer for Max Gallo, the government’s spokesman. After becoming a Municipal Councillor for Ussel in 1983, he contested Corrèze for a second time in 1988, this time being elected to the National Assembly. Hollande lost his bid for re-election to the National Assembly in the so-called “blue wave” of the 1993 election, described as such due to the number of seats gained by the Right at the expense of the Socialist Party.

As the end of Mitterrand’s term in office approached, the Socialist Party was torn by a struggle of internal factions, each seeking to influence the direction of the party. Hollande pleaded for reconciliation and for the party to unite behind Jacques Delors, the President of the European Commission, but Delors renounced his ambitions to run for the French Presidency in 1995, leading to Lionel Jospin’s resuming his earlier position as the leader of the party. Jospin selected Hollande to become the official party spokesman, and Hollande went on to contest Corrèze once again in 1997, successfully returning to the National Assembly. That same year, Jospin became the Prime Minister of France, and Hollande won the election for his successor as First Secretary of the French Socialist Party, a position he would hold for eleven years. Because of the very strong position of the Socialist Party within the French Government during this period, Hollande’s position led some to refer to him the “Vice Prime Minister”. Hollande would go on to be elected the Mayor of Tulle in 2001, an office he would hold for the next seven years.

The immediate resignation of Jospin from politics following his shock defeat by far-right candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen in the first round of the 2002 presidential election forced Hollande to become the public face of the party for the 2002 legislative election but, although he managed to limit defeats and was re-elected in his own constituency, the Socialists lost nationally. In order to prepare for the 2003 Party Congress in Dijon, he obtained the support of many notable personalities of the party and was re-elected First Secretary against opposition from left-wing factions. After the triumph of the Left in the 2004 regional elections, Hollande was cited as a potential presidential candidate, but the Socialists were divided on the European Constitution, and Hollande’s support for the ill-fated “yes” position in the French referendum on the European Constitution caused friction within the party. Although Hollande was re-elected as First Secretary at the Le Mans Congress in 2005, his authority over the party began to decline from this point onwards. Eventually his domestic partner, Ségolène Royal, was chosen to represent the Socialist Party in the 2007 presidential election, where she would lose to Nicolas Sarkozy. Hollande was widely blamed for the poor performances of the Socialist Party in the 2007 elections, and he announced that he would not seek another term as First Secretary. Hollande publicly declared his support for Bertrand Delanoë, the Mayor of Paris, although it was Martine Aubry who would go on to win the race to succeed him in 2008.

Following his resignation as First Secretary, Hollande was immediately elected to replace Jean-Pierre Dupont as the President of the General Council of Corrèze in April 2008, a position he holds to this day. In 2008 he supported the creation of the first European Prize for Local History (Étienne Baluze Prize), founded by the “Société des Amis du musée du cloître” of Tulle, on the suggestion of the French historian Jean Boutier. François Hollande awarded the first prize on 29 February 2008 to the Italian historian Beatrice Palmero in the General Council of Corrèze.

Following his re-election as President of the General Council of Corrèze in March 2011, Hollande announced that he would be a candidate in the upcoming primary election to select the Socialist and Radical Left Party presidential nominee. The primary marked the first time that both parties had held an open primary to select a joint nominee at the same time. He initially trailed the front-runner, former Finance Minister and IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn. Following Strauss-Kahn’s arrest on suspicion of sexual assault in New York City in May 2011, Hollande began to lead the opinion polls. His position as front-runner was established just as Strauss-Kahn declared that he would no longer be seeking the nomination. After a series of televised debates throughout September, Hollande topped the ballot in the first round held on 9 October with 39% of the vote, not gaining the 50% required to avoid a second ballot, which he would contest against Martine Aubry, who had come second with 30% of the vote.

The second ballot took place on 16 October 2011. Hollande won with 56% of the vote to Aubry’s 43% and thus became the official Socialist and Radical Left Party candidate for the 2012 presidential election. After the primary results, he immediately gained the pledged support of the other contenders for the party’s nomination, including Aubry, Arnaud Montebourg, Manuel Valls and 2007 candidate Ségolène Royal.

Hollande’s presidential campaign was managed by Pierre Moscovici and Stéphane Le Foll, a Member of Parliament and Member of the European Parliament respectively. Hollande launched his campaign officially with a rally and major speech at Le Bourget on 22 January 2012 in front of 25,000 people. The main themes of his speech were equality and the regulation of finance, both of which he promised to make a key part of his campaign.

On 26 January he outlined a full list of policies in a manifesto containing 60 propositions, including the separation of retail activities from riskier investment-banking businesses; raising taxes for big corporations, banks and the wealthy; creating 60,000 teaching jobs; bringing the official retirement age back down to 60 from 62; creating subsidised jobs in areas of high unemployment for the young; promoting more industry in France by creating a public investment bank; granting marriage and adoption rights to same-sex couples; and pulling French troops out of Afghanistan in 2012. On 9 February, he detailed his policies specifically relating to education in a major speech in Orléans.

On 15 February, incumbent President Nicolas Sarkozy announced that he would run for a second and final term, strongly criticising Hollande’s proposals and claiming that he would bring about “economic disaster within two days of taking office” if he won.

In his first overseas trip for his campaign, he visited Berlin, Germany, in December 2011 for the Social Democrats Federal Party Congress, at which he met Sigmar Gabriel, Peer Steinbrueck, Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Martin Schulz; he also travelled to Belgium before the United Kingdom in February 2012, where he met with Opposition Leader Ed Miliband; and finally Tunisia in May 2012.

Opinion polls showed a tight race between the two men in the first round of voting, with most polls showing Hollande comfortably ahead of Sarkozy in a hypothetical second round run-off.
The first round of the presidential election was held on 22 April. François Hollande came in first place with 28.63% of the vote, and faced Nicolas Sarkozy in the second round run-off.
In the second round of voting on 6 May 2012, François Hollande was elected President of the French Republic with 51.7% of the vote.

For over thirty years, his partner was fellow Socialist politician Ségolène Royal, with whom he has four children – Thomas (1984), Clémence (1985), Julien (1987) and Flora (1992). In June 2007, just a month after Royal’s defeat in the French presidential election of 2007, the couple announced that they were separating.

A few months after his split from Ségolène Royal was announced, a French website published details of a relationship between Hollande and French journalist Valérie Trierweiler. This was controversial as some considered this to be a breach of France’s strict stance on the privacy of politicians’ personal affairs. In November 2007, Valérie Trierweiler confirmed and openly discussed her relationship with Hollande in an interview with French weekly Télé 7 Jours.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois_Hollande

Nicolas Sarkozy, Former President of France

Nicolas Sarkozy, President of France

Nicolas Sarkozy was born in Paris 52 years ago, of a French mother and a father who chose to immigrate to France when his country, Hungary, was invaded by the communist Soviet Union. He grew up in Paris, then in Neuilly-sur-Seine, a suburb of Paris, where he still lives. His family taught him the values of Gaullism: love of France and the refusal of defeat.

Born January 28 1955, Paris

Family His father was a Hungarian immigrant who fled in the late 1940s and signed up for the Foreign Legion.

Education Masters degree in private law, 1978, Institute d’Études Politiques de Paris, 1979-81, barrister’s diploma, 1981

Career Barrister 1981-87; mayor, Neuilly-sur-Seine, 1983; minister of the budget 1993-94; minister of communication, 1994-95; minister of the interior and security, 2002-04; minister of the economy, finance and industry, 2004; president UMP, November 2004

On personal ambition When he was asked in a television interview whether he dreamt of being president when shaving, Sarkozy replied: “Yes – and not only when shaving.”

Áder grew up in the small town of Csorna in Győr-Moson-Sopron county. Beginning in 1978, he studied law for five years at the Faculty of Law and Political Sciences at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest. From 1986 to 1990, he was a research fellow at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences’ Sociological Research Institute.

Áder, who has a law degree, was a co-founder of Fidesz (Alliance of Young Democrats), at the time a liberal coalition of democrats (although it has shifted to center-right as of 2012). He served as a party legal expert. Áder was a member of the Opposition Round Table which, in 1989, negotiated an end to single-party rule in Hungary.

In the 1990 and 1994 elections he was head of the Fidesz campaign. He was a member of the Hungarian Parliament (Országgyűlés) from 1990 to 2009, and was the Speaker of the National Assembly of Hungary from 18 June 1998 to 15 May 2002. He was the leader of the Fidesz caucus opposition from 2002 to 2006. In 2011, he helped draft legislation which changed the role of the Hungarian judiciary, leading the European Commission to bring the matter of Hungarian judicial independence before the European Court of Justice. He also helped draft the legislation which revised Hungarian electoral laws.

In the 2009 European Parliament election, he became a member of the European Parliament.

On 16 April 2012, Áder was appointed by the Fidesz party, and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, to become the new President of Hungary after the resignation of Pál Schmitt. He was elected on 2 May to a five-year term by a vote of 262–40, and will take office on 10 May 2012. He will be the first president to hold that office since the new Hungarian constitution took effect on 1 January 2012.

János Áder is married to Anita Herczegh, who works as a judge. They have three girls and one boy. Áder’s father-in-law, Géza Herczegh, was a judge of the International Court of Justice at The Hague from 1993 to 2003.

Pál Schmitt, Former President of Hungary (Resigned on Apr 2, 2012. László Kövér, president of the National Assembly, becomes Acting President)

Pál Schmitt, President of Hungary

Pál Schmitt (born 13 May 1942 in Budapest) is a Hungarian politician, former Speaker of the National Assembly of Hungary from 14 May 2010. He was elected as President of Hungary in a 263 to 59 vote in the Parliament of Hungary on June 29, 2010 and takes office on August 5, 2010.

Schmitt was elected in the 2009 elections as a Member of the European Parliament with the Fidesz – Hungarian Civic Union, to the Bureau of the European People’s Party and was vice-chair of the European Parliament’s Committee on Culture and Education. Schmitt was also elected as the Vice President of the European Parliament , a post where he was succeeded by László Tőkés.

Schmitt chairs the Delegation to the EU-Croatia Joint Parliamentary Committee. On July 14, 2009 he was elected one of the 14 Vice-Presidents of the European Parliament.

He is also a sportsman, won team épée gold medal at the Games of the XIX. Olympiad in Mexico (1968) and the XX. Olympiad in Munich (1972). He is the Chief of Protocol of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and presided the World Olympians Association between 1999 and 2007.

José Maria Vasconcelos, popularly known by his nom de guerre Taur Matan Ruak (Tetum for “Two Sharp Eyes”) is an East Timorese politician who was elected as President of East Timor in April 2012. Before entering politics, he was the Commander of the FALINTIL-Forças de Defesa de Timor-Leste (F-FDTL), the military of East Timor, from 2002 until 6 October 2011. Prior to serving in the F-FDTL, he was the last commander of the Armed Forces of National Liberation of East Timor or FALINTIL (Forças Armadas para a Liberação Nacional de Timor Leste), the insurgent army which resisted the Indonesian occupation of the territory, from 1975 to 1999.

Leaving the military in 2011, he stood as an independent candidate in the 2012 presidential election and prevailed in the second round of the vote, held in April 2012.

On 7 December 1975, when Indonesia invaded East Timor, Taur Matan Ruak took to the hills with the recently formed FRETILIN Army, FALINTIL. As a combatant, he participated in battles against the Indonesian military in Dili, Aileu, Maubisse, Ossu, Venilale, Uatulari and finally in Laga on the northeastern coast, where he eventually stayed. Major-General Ruak’s first official FALINTIL appointment was at the end of 1976. From 1976 to 1979, he rose through the FALINTIL ranks in the two eastern military sectors, the Central East Sector and the Eastern Point, or the Ponta Leste Sector. Then he became a company commander.

Taur Matan Ruak played a role in the 2006 East Timorese crisis. On 2 October 2006, the United Nations Independent Special Commission of Inquiry made a number of recommendations including that several individuals be prosecuted. Notably, it found that Interior Minister Rogerio Lobato, and Defence Minister Roque Rodrigues and Defence Force Chief Taur Matan Ruak acted illegally in transferring weapons to civilians during the crisis.

Ruak resigned from his position as commander of the F-FDTL on 1 September 2011. At the time there was speculation that he was considering running for president. Ruak stated that he would make a decision on standing for election during 2012.

He was formally decommissioned by President José Ramos-Horta on 6 October 2011.
Taur Matan Ruak and others regrouped the following day at the base of Monte Legumau (Monte Apara) and recommenced guerrilla operations after the collapse of the last Timorese resistance base at Matebian Mountain on 22 November 1978. He was ordered to carry out guerrilla activities in the east after the death of Commander Nicolau Lobato in December 1978. During a mission to locate survivors of the annihilation campaign, Taur Matan Ruak was captured in the Viqueque area by Indonesian Army forces on 31 March 1979. After 23 days he managed to escape and rejoin other FALINTIL forces in the mountains.

In March 1981 he was appointed Assistant Chief-of-Staff of FALINTIL, responsible for the operational command of the Eastern Sectors and later the Central Sector. Taur Matan Ruak was promoted and made responsible for strategic planning of commando operations in the Eastern sector in March 1983. Between 1984 and 1986 Brigadier Ruak was transferred and served as military adviser for commando operations in the Western Sector. After nearly 10 years of operational experience he was promoted to Deputy Chief-of-Staff. After 1986, he was responsible for all commando operations throughout Timor Leste.

In November 1992, Commander-in-Chief Xanana Gusmão was captured in Dili. Taur Matan Ruak was promoted to Chief-of-Staff. Mr. Ruak became the Commander of FALINTIL after the death of Commander Konis Santana on 11 March 1998. Xanana Gusmão resigned from FALINTIL and Taur Matan Ruak was appointed the Commander-in-Chief of FALINTIL. With the Restoration of Independence on 20 May 2002 he became the Chefe Estado Maior General Forças Armadas (CEMGFA or Chief of the Armed Forces) and was promoted to Major General in 2009.

General Ruak is married to Isabel da Costa Ferreira.

A presidential election was held in Timor-Leste on 17 March and 16 April 2012 in order to choose a president for a five year term. Incumbent President Jose Ramos-Horta, who was eligible for a second and final term as president, announced that he would seek nomination to be a candidate in the election. The election was seen as a test for the “young democracy” in seeking to take control of its own security. Taur Matan Ruak provisionally beat Francisco Guterres in a second round runoff.

Kay Rala Xanana Gusmão, Prime Minister of Timor-Leste (East Timor)

Kay Rala Xanana Gusmão, President of Timor-Leste (East Timor)

Date of Birth: 
June 20, 1946

Place of Birth: 
Manatuto, Timor-Leste

Kay Rala Xanana Gusmão was born on June 20, 1946 in Manatuto, Timor-Leste (East Timor). He was raised in the country, with a brother and five sisters. His father was a schoolteacher. He completed primary and started secondary school at the Catholic mission of “Nossa Senhora de Fátima” in Dare and then went on to Dili. He started to work very early in life, mornings as a chartered surveyor and afternoons teaching at the Chinese school. In April 1974 he joined the staff of “A Voz de Timor” (the Voice of Timor).After the Carnation Revolution in Portugal on 25th April 1974, and faced with the opportunity for self-determination and independence, Kay Rala Xanana Gusmão decided to join the newly formed Associação Social Democrata –ASDT (Social Democrat Association) which was later that same year transformed into the Revolutionary Front for an Independent Timor-Leste (FRETILIN). Having worked as a journalist and photographer, Kay Rala Xanana Gusmão took on the party’s job of Deputy-Director of the Department of Information.

On December 7, 1975, after a series of border-armed incursions into the territory of Timor-Leste, Indonesia decided to invade the capital, Díli. Following the death of the then President of FRETILIN, Nicolau Lobato in December 1978, and coupled with the loss of a majority of the Central Committee Members of FRETILIN, Kay Rala Xanana Gusmão was left with the task of reorganising the struggle. In March 1981, he organised the first National Conference of the FRETILIN, during which he was elected leader of the Resistance and Commander-in-Chief of the FALINTIL (National Liberation Armed Forces of Timor-Leste). In March 1983, Kay Rala Xanana Gusmão demonstrated his pragmatism by initiating formal negotiations with the Indonesian Armed Forces (ABRI/TNI) leading to a cease-fire, which lasted until August the same year.

He conceived and implemented the Policy of National Unity that translated into active cooperation with members of the Catholic Church and with the transitional authorities of Timor-Leste. Kay Rala Xanana Gusmão took advantage of the five-month cease-fire to develop the first organised national clandestine network, known in Portuguese as ‘Frente Clandestina’. In 1988, the success of the initiative for National Unity prompted Kay Rala Xanana Gusmão to create the CNRM – National Council of Maubere Resistance, as an expression of a non-partisan national command of the struggle; CNRM later became CNRT, National Council of Timorese Resistance.

A year after the Santa Cruz massacre, Kay Rala Xanana Gusmão, after 17 years of guerrilla warfare, was captured on November 20, 1992 in the capital Díli. Faced with international commendation, Kay Rala Xanana Gusmão faced a kangaroo-court trial and was imprisoned in a prison reserved for criminals only, but amid pressure from the international community, the Indonesian authorities were forced to transfer him to Cipinang prison reserved for political prisoners.

In prison, Xanana Gusmão devoted his time to the elaboration of the strategies of the Resistance, while studying Bahasa Indonesia (the Indonesian language), English and Law. He also painted and wrote poetry, cultivating a talent already recognised in 1975 when he won the Timor Poetry Prize with his poem “Mauberíadas”. Some of his paintings were sold, the payment of which was donated to the Resistance at Xanana Gusmão’s request. In 1994, some of his political essays were published in a book, Timor-Leste – um Povo, uma Pátria, (East Timor – a People, a Nation) Ed. Colibri, Lisbon.

In April 1998, at the East Timorese National Convention in the Diaspora, which established the National Council of Timorese Resistance (CNRT), Xanana Gusmão was reaffirmed by acclamation as leader of the East Timorese Resistance and President of CNRT.

Following increasing international pressure to release him and the statement by President Habibie of Indonesia on granting independence to Timor-Leste if the outcome of a popular consultation was to reject the autonomy plan proposed by his government, Kay Rala Xanana Gusmão was transferred from Cipinang Prison to house arrest in Salemba, Central Jakarta, on 10 February 1999.

The rapid development of the East Timorese political process and the generalised international recognition of Gusmão’s statesmanship and leadership were the reasons for the numerous visits to his prison-house by foreign government representatives, including US Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, former US President, Jimmy Carter, Australian Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, and Japanese Foreign Minister, Masahiko Komura.

The UN-sponsored referendum on 30 August 1999, which overwhelmingly rejected the autonomy proposal put forth by Indonesia, signalled the end of the Indonesian occupation of Timor-Leste and the beginning of the transitional process led by the UN in Timor-Leste. This was undoubtedly the first democratic act in Timor-Leste’s history.

Kay Rala Xanana Gusmão was released from house arrest on 7 September 1999.

In August 2000, the First National Congress of CNRT, held in Díli, elected Kay Rala Xanana Gusmão President of the CNRT/National Congress. From November 2000 to April 2001, Kay Rala Xanana Gusmão was the Speaker of the National Council, an all-Timorese legislative body of the Transitional Administration of East Timor, comprised of political party, civil society representatives, pro-autonomy groups and representatives from several religious beliefs.

The CNRT/CN was dissolved on 9 June 2001. After the dissolution of CNRT/CN, Kay Rala Xanana Gusmão focused his efforts on the AVR – Association of Resistance Veterans, – an organisation that encompasses former members of the clandestine network and aims to create conditions for their skilled participation in the country’s development process.

On 14 April 2002, Kay Rala Xanana Gusmão was elected President of Timor-Leste and was sworn-in as the President of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste on 20 May 2002. He served as President of the Republic until the end of his term of office in May 2007.

After leaving the Presidency, Kay Rala Xanana Gusmão was elected President of the newly established political party formed in April 2007, CNRT – “National Congress for the Reconstruction of Timor-Leste”. For the whole month of June, Kay Rala Xanana Gusmão campaigned during the legislative elections across the country. On 30th June, the legislative elections were held and in the final results, CNRT received the second highest number of votes and immediately formed an alliance with three other parties – PD (Democratic Party) and the ASDT-PSD Coalition called the AMP (Alliance with Parliamentary Majority), thus securing 37 out of the 65 seats in the National Parliament.

On 3rd August 2007, H.E. Dr. José Ramos-Horta, President of the Republic, officially invited the AMP to form the next Government.

On 8th August 2007 at the Lahane Presidential Palace, the IV Constitutional Government was sworn-in with Kay Rala Xanana Gusmão as Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste. The Government’s term of office ends in 2012.

PRIZES:

1975: East Timor Poetry Prize
1999: European Parliament Sakharov Prize
2000: Kwangju (South Korea) Peace Prize
2000: Sydney Peace Prize
2002: North-South Prize, North-South Observatory (European Union)
2002: UNESCO Félix Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize
2002: “Honorary Adult Friend”, Children’s Award, Sweden
2003: 2003 Path to Peace Award, Path to Peace Foundation
2003: International Herald Tribune “Leadership with Integrity” Award
2003: BusinessWeek “Stars of Asia” Award

AWARDS:

1995: Honorary Citizen of Brasília, Brazil
1998: Order of Freedom, Portugal
1998: Honorary Citizen of São Paulo, Brazil
1999: Honorary Doctorate, Lusíada University, Lisbon, Portugal
2000: Order of Merit, New Zealand
2000: Honorary Citizen of Lisbon, Portugal (awarded the Gold Key of Lisbon City)
2000: Medal of the Vice-Presidency of the Federative Republic of Brazil
2000: Order of Merit José Bonifácio, Grau de Gran-Oficial, University of the State of Rio Janeiro
2000: Honorary Doctorate, University of Oporto, Portugal
2002: Grande Colar da Ordem do Cruzeiro do Sul, Brazil
2003: Honorary Degree of Doctorate of Laws, Victoria University
2003: Honorary Knighthood of the Grand Cross of the Order of St. Michael & St. George
2004: Honorary Law Doctorate Degree, Suncheon National University, Korea
2006: Grande Colar da Ordem de Dom Infante, Portugal
2006: Honorary Philosophy Doctorate Degree, University of Takushoku, Japan

Married Emilia Batista, 1969 (div) 2 Children
Married Kirsty Sword Gusmão, 2000, 3 Children

For further information:
Media Relations Unit
Gabinete do Primeiro Ministro/Office of the Prime Minister
Palácio do Governo / Palace of the Government
Dili, Timor-Leste

Contacts:
Phone (Landline) +670 332 2026

Source: http://timor-leste.gov.tl

Leonid Tibilov (born 28 March 1952 in Verkhny Dvan, Znaur district) is a South Ossetian politician who is the President-elect of South Ossetia after winning the 2012 South Ossetian presidential election.

Leonid Tibilov is a former head of the KGB in South Ossetia from 1992 to 1998. He was then a first deputy prime minister and co-chaired a Georgian-Ossetian peacekeeping commission. Tibilov stood at the 2006 presidential election losing to Eduard Kokoity, who won 98% of the vote.

Before the 2012 election Tibilov distanced himself from the outgoing President Eduard Kokoity. Tibilov is reported to be loyal to Russia and pledged to consult Russia before appointing a government if he was successful at the election.

In the first round of the 2012 Presidential election, Tibilov received 42.5% of the vote to lead David Sanakoyev. In the second round Tibilov was elected president with 54% of the vote.

The president of South Ossetia, Eduard Kokoyty, resigned on December 10, 2011. Prime Minister Vadim Brovtsev will be acting president from December 11 until the new presidential election scheduled for March 25, 2012.

Eduard Kokoyty, Former President of South Ossetia

Eduard Kokoyty, President of South Ossetia

(Кокойты Эдуард Джабеевич) born on October 31, 1964 in Tskhinvali.

Professional career started as an electrical engineer. Graduated South Ossetian Pedagogical Institute in 1987. While he was a student, he was elected as the secretary of the committee of communists at the university.From 1988-1989 was a secretary and then from 1989-1991 he was the first secretary of the city of Tskhinvali communist party.

During Georgia-Ossetia conflict, he created and headed the fighting division of the “defenders of Ossetia.”

From 1990-1993 he was a deputy of the Parliament of South Ossetia.

In 1993 he created a sports charity fund “Youth.”

In 1997 he was appointed as the Trade Representative-Minister of South Ossetia to Russia.

Then, he was an advisor to the deputy of Russian Parliament, A. Chekhoev.

Married. Has 3 sons.

Dmitry Sanakoev, Alternative President of South Ossetia

Dmitry Sanakoev (born in 1969) is a South Ossetian politician. He claims to serve as President of South Ossetia, a secessionist republic officially recognised as being part of Georgia, after winning alternative elections organised by the opposition to the de facto incumbent, Eduard Kokoity. He is recognised neither by the de facto government in Tskhinvali, the entity’s capital, or by the international community at large, which does not recognise the existence of a South Ossetian government at all.
Sanakoyev fought on the Ossetian side during the Georgian-Ossetian conflict in the early 1990s. Later, he served as defense minister and then as prime minister for several months in 2001 under Kokoity’s predecessor, Lyudvig Chibirov, but left South Ossetia for Moscow after Kokoity came to power.

On November 13, in a so-called “alternative” poll organized by The Salvation Union of South Ossetia in Georgian- and Ossetian villages not controlled by the separatists, Sanakoyev was declared the president-elect, with more than 80 percent of the vote. His campaign posters were prominently posted on walls outside polling stations in Georgian-controlled villages, benefited from extensive media coverage in the Georgian press. His election manifesto envisaged the restoration of the region’s status as a republic within Georgia and a program of measures to spur economic growth.

At his November 13 press conference, Kokoity termed Sanakoyev and Karkusov, head of the alternative election commission and a former advisor to Kokoity, “traitors to their homeland and traitors to the South Ossetian people.” The South Ossetian media launched a campaign to discredit and compromise Sanakoyev, accusing him of corruption, duplicity, and collaborating with Georgian intelligence.

In December 2006, Sanakoyev formed his government, choosing not to include the post of defense minister.

His Excellency, Dr. Bingu wa Mutharika, President of Malawi

His Excellency, Dr. Bingu wa Mutharika comes from Kamoto Village in Thyolo, southern Malawi. He officially became the President of the Republic of Malawi on May 24, 2004.

He holds a PhD in Development Economics from the Pacific Western University, Los Angeles, USA. He also has a Masters Degree in Economics and a Bachelor’s Degree in Commerce from the University of Delhi, India.A distinguished former diplomat, Dr. Mutharika worked, from 1990 – 1997, as Secretary General of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) formerly Preferential Trade Area (PTA).

As an authority on regional institution building, Dr. Mutharika spearheaded the establishment of several regional economic organizations such as the Association of African Central Banks (AACB), Conference of African Ministers of Finance, African Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (AFCCI), and Eastern and Southern Africa Business Organisation (ESABO).

Before becoming Secretary General of COMESA, President Mutharika worked for the United Nations where he rose to the position of Director for Trade and Development Finance, responsible for 53 African countries.

His political history dates back to the early days of Malawi’s Independence. He was one of the people who opposed the authoritarian rule of Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda, Malawi’s first Head of State. He also opposed the introduction, by the Banda administration, of racial discrimination and salary differentiation based on race in the civil service. This inevitably forced him to flee the country for Zambia.

Dr. Mutharika is married to Ethel, daughter of a medical assistant, Dunnet Disi of Disi Village in the area of chief Kuntumaji in Zomba. He has four children.

He is a devout catholic. His hobbies include playing golf, tennis, swimming, photography, writing books, fishing and listening to soft music.

Boris Tadic, President of Serbia

Boris Tadic was elected president of Serbia on June 27, 2004. A reformist politician from the Democratic party, Tadic defeated Tomislav Nikolic, a nationalist ally of Slobodan Milosevic, in a presidential run-off that was held after Nikolic fell short of a clear victory in the first round of voting.

A professor of psychology, Tadic entered politics in 1990, when he joined Democratic party. Tadic served as Yugoslavia’s minister of communications and as the defense minister of the union of Serbia and Montenegro. He became the leader of the Democratic party after the assassination of President Zoran Djindjic, the first non-communist prime minister of Serbia since World War II.

Tadic’s pro-Western Democrats led the uprising against Milosevic in 2000, but difficult economic reforms led to a resurgence of nationalism in the years since, and in December of 2003, the Democrats lost their control of parliament and control of the government was handed over to moderate nationalists and conservatives.

Tadic has pledged to revive Serbia’s economy, to move Serbia closer to the European Union and NATO, and to help find a peaceful solution for Kosovo. In his victory speech, he also vowed to ensure that Serbia would “meet its international obligations”, which was understood as a reference to cooperation with the United Nations War Crimes Tribunal at the Hague which is investigating the Balkan wars of the 1990s and is trying Milosevic for crimes that were allegedly committed during his rule. This cooperation is seen as crucial to ensure Western financial support of Serbia.

Macky Sall was born on 11 December 1961. Under President Abdoulaye Wade, Sall was Prime Minister of Senegal from April 2004 to June 2007 and President of the National Assembly of Senegal from June 2007 to November 2008. He was the Mayor of Fatick from 2002 to 2008 and has held that post again since April 2009.

Sall was a long-time member of the Senegalese Democratic Party (PDS). After coming into conflict with Wade, he was removed from his post as President of the National Assembly in November 2008; he consequently founded his own party and joined the opposition. Placing second in the first round of the 2012 presidential election, he won the backing of other opposition candidates and prevailed over Wade in the second round of voting, held on 25 March 2012.

Sall, a geological engineer by profession, was born in Fatick. He became Secretary-General of the PDS Regional Convention in Fatick in 1998 and served as the PDS National Secretary in charge of Mines and Industry. He was Special Advisor for Energy and Mines to President Abdoulaye Wade from 6 April 2000 to 12 May 2003, as well as Director-General of the Petroleum Company of Senegal (Société des Pétroles du Sénégal, PETROSEN) from 13 December 2000 to 5 July 2001. He became Minister of Mines, Energy and Hydraulics on 12 May 2001, and he was promoted to the rank of Minister of State, while retaining his portfolio, on 6 November 2002. He additionally became the Mayor of Fatick on 1 June 2002.

On 27 August 2003, Sall was moved from his position as Minister of State for Mines, Energy and Hydraulics to that of Minister of State for the Interior and Local Communities, while also becoming Government Spokesman. He was then appointed as Prime Minister by President Wade on 21 April 2004, when his predecessor, Idrissa Seck, was dismissed. On 25 April 2004, Seck became Vice-President of the PDS Steering Committee.

Sall served as the director of Wade’s re-election campaign for the February 2007 presidential election, in which Wade was victorious, obtaining a majority in the first round. After Wade was sworn in, Sall submitted his resignation on 10 April and was immediately reappointed, with the government unchanged.

In the June 2007 parliamentary election, Sall was elected to the National Assembly as a candidate on the national list of the Sopi Coalition. After the election, Wade appointed Minister Delegate for the Budget Cheikh Hadjibou Soumaré as Prime Minister on 19 June, replacing Sall, who had resigned along with his government shortly beforehand. Sall said that he was proud of what he had accomplished as Prime Minister.

Sall was elected as President of the National Assembly one day later, on 20 June 2007; he was the only candidate and received 143 votes from the 146 deputies present. Sall and Wade came into conflict later in 2007 when Sall called Wade’s son Karim, the President of the National Agency of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), for a hearing in the National Assembly regarding construction sites in Dakar for the OIC Summit planned to take place there in March 2008. This was perceived as an attempt by Sall to weaken Karim’s position and possibly influence the eventual presidential succession in favor of himself, provoking the enmity of Wade and his loyalists within the PDS. In November 2007, the PDS Steering Committee abolished Sall’s position of Deputy Secretary-General, which had been the second most powerful position in the party, and it decided to submit a bill to the National Assembly that would reduce the term of the President of the National Assembly from five years to one year. Following the death of Mourides religious leader Serigne Saliou Mbacké in late December 2007, his successor, Serigne Mouhamadou Lamine Bara Mbacké, asked Wade to forgive Sall; Wade then met with Sall and the two were said to have made peace in early January 2008.

Sall nevertheless remained at odds with the PDS leadership in 2008. In September 2008, a PDS deputy presented the bill to reduce the term of the President of the National Assembly to one year, and later in the month, Sall was called before the PDS Disciplinary Committee, although he did not appear. On this occasion, Sall was accused of divisive personal initiatives within the party; he also allegedly committed “acts aimed at undermining the image of the party and country”, referring in particular to Sall’s visits to the Senate of France and the United States Democratic Party’s 2008 Convention. A statement released by Sall’s political adviser condemned the move to discipline Sall as an “attempt at political liquidation”.

On 13 October 2008, the National Assembly voted to reduce the term of the President of the National Assembly to one year; this was approved by President Wade on 21 October. Despite Sall’s determined efforts to maintain his position, the National Assembly voted to dismiss him as President of the National Assembly on 9 November 2008. There were 111 votes in favor of his removal and 22 against it. Sall promptly announced that he was resigning from the PDS; this decision meant that he would lose his seat in the National Assembly, as well as his seat on Fatick’s municipal council and his post as Mayor of Fatick. He also said that he would create a new party. Mamadou Seck was elected to replace Sall as President of the National Assembly on 16 November 2008.

Sall founded his own party, the Alliance for the Republic–Yaakaar, in early December 2008. The Interior Ministry accused Sall of money laundering on 26 January 2009; Sall denied this and said that the accusation was politically motivated. In late February 2009 it was decided not to prosecute Sall due to lack of evidence.

Following the March 2009 local election in Fatick, Sall was re-elected to his former post as Mayor in April 2009. He received 44 votes from the 45 municipal councillors present; the Sopi Coalition’s five councillors were not present for the vote.

Abdoulaye Wade, Former President of Senegal

Abdoulaye Wade, President of Senegal

Abdoulaye Wade (born May 29, 1926) is the third and current President of Senegal, in office since 2000. He is also the leader of the Senegalese Democratic Party, a liberal party that is a member of the Liberal International. He led the opposition for decades and was at times exiled and imprisoned at Besançon prison for his political activities.

Life before politics

Wade was born in Kébémer, Senegal. He studied and taught law at the lycée Condorcet in France. He holds two doctorates in law and economics. He was also dean of the law and economics faculty at the University of Dakar in Senegal.

Political career

Wade first ran for president in February 1978 against Senegal’s first president, Léopold Sédar Senghor, taking 17.38% and losing to Senghor. Subsequently he ran in the presidential elections of 1983, 1988, and 1993, taking second place each time, behind Senghor’s successor Abdou Diouf. In February 2000, he again received second place with 31%, but Diouf did not receive a majority and a second round was held on March 19. Wade won this round with 58.49% of the vote, having received the support of candidates from the first round, including third place candidate Moustapha Niasse. Wade became president on April 1, 2000 and appointed Niasse as his prime minister shortly afterwards. Wade was forced to cohabit with the former ruling party (the Socialists), which held a majority in the legislature until the Democratic Party’s victory in the 2001 parliamentary elections.

A new constitution (in French) was written in 2001, under the terms of which future presidents of Senegal will be limited to 5-year terms after the completion of Wade’s 7-year term in 2007. Wade announced in April 2006 that the following elections would be held on February 25, 2007.

Wade was nominated as the presidential candidate of the Democratic Party in October 2006. One of Wade’s opponents in this election was his former prime minister Idrissa Seck, who was once considered Wade’s protégé, but was arrested in 2005. Final results released on March 11, 2007, showed Wade winning in the first round with 55.9% of the vote, far ahead of his nearest opponents, Seck with about 15% and Socialist Party leader Ousmane Tanor Dieng with about 13.6%. Dieng and another opposition candidate, Abdoulaye Bathily, filed appeals regarding the election, but these were rejected by the Constitutional Council. Wade was sworn in for his second term on April 3 at the Leopold Sedar Senghor Stadium in Dakar, with many African leaders and about 60,000 spectators in attendance.

Anerood JUGNAUTH, President of Mauritius

Date of Birth 29 March 1930
Nationality Mauritian

Address La Caverne, Vacoas, Mauritius

Postal address State House,
Le Réduit,
Mauritius.

Telephone 454-3021 / 454-3022 / 454-3023

Fax 466-0342

Marital status Spouse- Lady Sarojni Jugnauth
Married with two children (Pravind and Shalini)

Education Roman Catholic Aided School, Palma
Regent College, Quatre-Bornes
1951: Lincoln’s Inn, United Kingdom
1954: Called to the Bar

Languages spoken English, French, Hindi, Bhojpuri, Creole

Interest Reading and Football

Source: http://www.gov.mu

Amadou Toumani Touré, President of Mali

Born Amadou Toumani Toure c. 1948 in Mpoti, Mali.

Education: Received training as history and geography teacher in Bamako, graduated 1969; attended Ecole Militaire Interarmes, 1969-72; received further military training in Riazan, Soviet Union and Pau, France; attended Ecole Superieur de Guerre, Paris, 1990.

Politics: Supporter of constitutional democracy.

Career
Armed forces of Mali, lieutenant, 1972-78; 33rd parachute battalion, captain, 1978-84, became commander of battalion, 1985-90; promoted to lieutenant colonel, 1986; served as commander of the presidential guard for eight years, c. 1978-86; acting Head of State, Transition Committee for the Salvation of the People, 1991-92; oversaw Mali’s Guinea Worm Eradication Program, 1992; member of facilitators to regional initiative on Rwanda and Burundi, 1996; head of International Follow-Up Committee on peace in the Central African Republic, 1997; head of Inter-African Mission to Monitor the Implementation of the Bangui Agreements, 1997-.

Life’s Work

Approachable, modest, soft-spoken, and avuncular are not terms that usually describe the leaders of military coups. However, these words are often associated with Amadou Toure, an officer in the West African nation of Mali who led a rebellion that ousted longtime dictator Moussa Traore in 1991. Known affectionately as “ATT,” Toure was popular as a revolutionary, popular as an interim president, and remains popular as a regional diplomat on a mission of peace throughout central Africa.
Toure was born in either 1943 or 1948 in Mpoti, Mali. After receiving his early education at local schools, he moved to Mali’s capital, Bamako, to receive training as a history and geography teacher. After graduating in 1969, Toure decided to embark on a military career rather than become a schoolteacher. He entered the Ecole Militaire Interarmes, a military academy in Kati, from which he graduated in 1972 as a lieutenant. Toure became a parachute instructor. Following further specialized training in Riazan in the former Soviet Union and in Pau, France, he was promoted to captain of the 33rd Parachute Battalion in 1978.

Toure’s rise through the ranks of the Malian military continued into the 1980s. He served for eight years as commander of the Presidential Guard. In 1986, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel. In April of 1990, Toure was sent for advanced military training to the Ecole Superieur de Guerre, a special war school in Paris, and remained there until December. Expecting a better job upon his return, Toure was disappointed when he was not immediately offered a promotion. After a few months, he was called upon to command his former battalion. This treatment embittered Toure and contributed to his growing dissatisfaction with the Malian government.

In the meantime, the Malian people were also tiring of dictator Moussa Traore’s oppressive regime. What began as peaceful protests throughout the country began to erupt into violent clashes between civilians and members of the armed forces. These clashes resulted in the deaths of hundreds of protesters. By early 1991, Toure’s loyalties had shifted away from Traore completely. He was quoted in Who’s Who in Africa: Leaders for the 1990s as saying that he was “really ashamed of being an army officer.” Toure also explained that “Moussa no longer served the interests of the country. He was opportunist, a total nepotist, a flatterer who made huge mistakes.”

In January of 1991, Toure began planning a coup to overthrow Traore, taking advantage of a major protest march in Bamako to begin organizing a strike force. With popular sentiment on his side, Toure was able to convince other senior officers to join him. Following several days of rioting in Bamako by trade unionists, students, and masses of unemployed people, Toure led an uprising that brought down Traore and his government on March 26, 1991. Traore was arrested, and Toure became head of the transitional government of Mali.

Toure’s coup was enthusiastically supported by most Malians. Sensing that the people of Mali did not want another military dictatorship, Toure quickly promised that power would be handed over to a democratically-elected civilian government within one year. A Council of National Reconciliation was formed, comprised of 16 senior officers who had participated in the coup, with Toure as its leader. The Council immediately opened a dialog with the leaders of Mali’s pro-democracy opposition. As Toure told the Reuters news service, “We can’t talk about opposition–we’re working amongst brother Malians. We want everyone to participate in this work of national importance.”

Upon assuming control of the government, Toure moved quickly to address Mali’s many problems, including severe poverty and an ongoing revolt by the Tuareg people in northern Mali. In April of 1992, after months of negotiations, Toure and the Tuareg leaders signed a National Pact that effectively ended the rebellion. In addition, Toure began preparations for turning power over to a civilian government. His transitional government approved a new constitution on January 12, 1992, and within a week, municipal elections were held. Legislative elections took place over the next two months. A presidential election followed in April of 1992, with Alpha Oumar Konare of the Alliance for Democracy in Mali (ADEMA) emerging as the winner. Toure left office on June 8, 1992.

Mali’s transition from a military to a civilian government was astonishingly smooth. Konare, a well-known and charismatic figure, was able to follow Toure into the presidency without a significant loss of public support. Toure, meanwhile, was promoted to the rank of general. Shortly after stepping down as president, he took command of Mali’s Guinea Worm Eradication Program, securing $1 million for the project from the U.S. Agency for International Development.

In addition to his work in Mali, Toure has established himself as an important regional diplomat, taking part in peacemaking efforts throughout Africa. In 1996, he served on a facilitating team created to address a number of regional problems, particularly the ethnic conflicts in Rwanda and Burundi. The team included such high-profile figures as former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa.

As a member of the Carter Foundation, Toure spearheaded the organization of a peace summit in Tunisia aimed at forging an international solution to the many land disputes within Africa. In 1997, Toure turned his attention to the Central African Republic, where he led the International Follow-Up Committee that successfully negotiated a cease-fire between government and rebel factions there. His work on these “Bangui Agreements” continued into 1998, as he lobbied the United Nations for financial aid that would improve conditions within the Central African Republic.

As interim leader of Mali, Toure proved to be a man of his word and faithfully steered Mali on the path to democracy. His continued efforts to bring peace and stability to Africa’s volatile political landscape are greatly appreciated by Malians and all people of goodwill.