President Dmitry Medvedev on Wednesday set up an account at Russia’s largest social networking site, Vkontakte.
Vkontakte, Russia’s most popular website, has more than 100 million registered users.
“I will remain on the internet; moreover…I will expand my presence on the internet. To prove this, I’ll now open my own official page on Vkontakte,” Medvedev said at a meeting with Russian internet activists.
The president’s profile at Vkontakte says that his interests are: “work, family, sports, internet” and favorite music is “hard-rock, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, classical.” Medvedev has created two photo albums – one with images of landscapes he captured with his professional camera and another with photographs, featuring his everyday life as president.
The president’s first post: “Hi, here I am at Vkontakte!” gathered more than 6,000 ‘likes’ in less than one hour.
At the meeting, Medvedev also admitted that “almost everybody in the presidential administration has the Angry Birds game [on his or her computer].”
State officials who are unable to get to grips with modern technology should lose their jobs, Medvedev said. “If state officials do not know how to use computers and the internet, they must be immediately fired.”
Medvedev, who styles himself as a technologically savvy leader, is registered on Twitter, has a blog on LiveJournal and an account on YouTube and Facebook.
He initially opened his Twitter account in June 2010 during a visit to Silicon Valley. More than 270,000 people are currently following him at MedvedevRussia on the micro-blogging site, while the English version, MedvedevRussiaE, has almost 100,000 followers.
In his Twitter blog, the president shares his views of events in Russia and abroad, posts photographs that he takes, and responds to questions asked by other Twitter users.
Medvedev's twittering has, however, been mercilessly parodied at the @KermlinRussia Twitter account.
