He has been called a swot, a puppet and Vladimir Putin's baby brother. From Sunday, Dmitri Medvedev will be known simply as the President of Russia.

His surname comes from the Russian for “bear”, but that is all the soft-spoken former law professor has in common with the traditional symbol of his country. While action-man Putin is a judo black belt, Medvedev practises yoga and speaks to his mother on the telephone every day.

The 42-year-old owes his entire political career to Putin's patronage, and has even begun to walk and talk like his mentor. State TV has taken to filming him at angles that make him look taller, though in fact he is only 5ft 4in - 3in shorter than Putin.

Medvedev has sought to add colour to his profile as an administrator by disclosing a love of Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin and other Seventies British hard-rockers blacklisted as subversive by Soviet authorities. He recently lamented how his parents could not afford to buy their teenage son a copy of Pink Floyd's The Wall on the black market.

Medvedev was born in St Petersburg - then Leningrad - in 1965, the only child of two university professors. His father, Anatoly, was a physicist and his mother, Yulia, taught Russian literature, though he has pointed out that his ancestors included farmworkers and a blacksmith.

Medvedev met his future wife, Svetlana, as a seven-year-old at School No 305 and married her in 1989. He displayed support for traditional Russian values by insisting that his wife stay at home after their son Ilya, now 11, was born, explaining that “for the family, in my view, it would be better”.

Medvedev, like Putin, graduated in law from Leningrad State University. He started an academic career but was recruited to City Hall, which was where he first met Putin, who was impressed by his sharp mind and firm arguments. In 1996 he returned to lecturing and worked in private business while Putin headed to Moscow.

When Putin was named Prime Minister by an ailing President Yeltsin in 1999, he summoned his young protégé as deputy head of the government administration. As President, Putin promoted him steadily before creating the role of first deputy prime minister for him in 2005.

Medvedev's position as chairman of the state energy giant Gazprom since 2002 also singled him out as Putin's favourite son. Formally, he faces three rivals in Sunday's election but the result has been a foregone conclusion since Putin named him as his heir in December.

He repaid the compliment the next day by asking Putin to stay on as Prime Minister. Russians joke that Medvedev's first term is really Putin's third by other means. The great unknown is whether he will emerge as his own man once in the Kremlin hot seat.