--Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin--

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (Russian: Владимир Владимирович Путин (help·info), IPA [vlɐˈdʲimʲɪr vlɐˈdʲimʲɪrəvʲɪtɕ ˈputʲɪn]; born 7 October 1952) was the second President of the Russian Federation and is the current Prime Minister of Russia, as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus. He became acting President on 31 December 1999, when president Boris Yeltsin resigned in a surprising move, and then Putin won the 2000 presidential election. In 2004 he was re-elected for a second term lasting until 7 May 2008.
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Due to constitutionally mandated term limits, Putin was ineligible to run for a third consecutive Presidential term. After the victory of his successor, Dmitry Medvedev, in the 2008 presidential elections, he was then nominated by the latter to be Russia's Prime Minister; Putin took the post on 8 May 2008.
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~http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Putin

--Polish president among 132 dead in jet crash--

Plane goes down in Russia en route to commemoration of Stalin’s victims
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msnbc.com news services

updated 5:28 a.m. ET April 10, 2010
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SMOLENSK, Russia - Polish President Lech Kaczynski was killed when a plane carrying 132 people crashed in thick fog on its approach to a Russian airport on Saturday, killing everyone on board, officials said.

The governor of the Smolensk region, where the crash took place about 11 a.m. (3 a.m. ET), said no one survived.

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~http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36352097/ns/world_news-europe?GT1=39002