Youth in Moscow at last!

370)this.width=370">When you recall all the craggy, old, faces who ruled Russia and its parent, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, since the October Revolution of 1917, you will be hard pressed to find a face as buoyant and youthful as Dmitry Medvedev.

President of Russia since May 7, 2008, Dmitry was just 42 when he was elected. Most observers dismissed him then and now as a proxy for his mentor Vladimir Putin, who stepped aside as president after the mandatory two terms in office and took over as the country's prime minister.

Though Putin still appears firmly at the controls of power, Dmitry -- who worships Deep Purple, Led Zepellin, Black Sabbath and Pink Floyd -- has had more success than Vladmir at establishing a friendly relationship with US President Barack Obama (who is just four years older than him; Dmitry was born September 14, 1965).

On Tuesday, the head of Russia's nuclear programme attributed last month's US-Russia nuclear treaty solely to the chemistry that both Barack and Dmitry share.

Putin was almost 46 when he became the Russian Federation's second president, a youthful change from the bumbling Boris Yeltsin. But the former spy, who rarely smiled in public, was a difficult personality for most world leaders to establish an easy equation with.

Happily for India, Putin reversed the downward slide in India-Russia relations in Yeltsin's regime and restored New Delhi's importance in Moscow's world-view, a status Medvedev has continued to enhance.