Recipient of the Legion d'honneur, the highest of French qualifications, in 2006 by President Jacques Chirac
A peak in the Tian Shan mountains of Kyrgyzstan was named after him in 2011
Awarded the Confucius Peace Prize in 2011 by the China International Peace Research Center
After earning a law degree from Leningrad State University in 1975, he would go on to study for his Ph․D․ there as well
First joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union while in college
After graduating from college, he would join the KGB in 1975 and work as an intelligence officer in East Germany until resigning in 1991
Relocated to Moscow in 1996 to work as the Deputy Chief of the Presidential Property Management Department before he was eventually named Chief Deputy of the Presidential Staff by Boris Yeltsin a year later
Earned his first of several Premierships in August of 1999 when he was appointed one of three First Deputy Prime Ministers, but would later vacate the position only four months later to step in for Boris Yeltsin, who had unexpectedly resigned in December
First inaugurated President on May 7, 2000, and was subsequently re-elected on March 14, 2004, and March 4, 2012
Named head of the Federal Security Service, the successor to the KGB, in July of 1998
Immediately after his resignation from the KGB, he was appointed as the head of the Committee for External Relations headquartered in St․ Petersburg, where he would remain until 1996
Other than Russian, he is also fluent in German and some English
A longtime adventurer, some of his hobbies include big-game hunting, martial arts, riding motorcycles and flying fighter jets
His paternal grandfather served as a cook and servant both Lenin and Stalin during the early 20th Century