ustries. A rise in foreign investment contributed to a boom in such sectors as the automotive industry. However, capital investment recently dropped 2.5% because of the crisis in Ukraine according to forecasts by economists from the IMF. Putin has cultivated a strongman image and is a pop cultural icon in Russia.
Barack Hussein Obama
Hussein Obama is the 44th and current President of the United States, and the first African American to hold the office. Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Obama is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he served as president of the Harvard Law Review. He was a community organizer in Chicago before earning his law degree. He worked as a civil rights attorney and taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from +1992 to 2004. He served three terms representing the 13th District in the Illinois Senate from +1997 to +2004, running unsuccessfully for the United States House of Representatives in 2000.2004, Obama received national attention during his campaign to represent Illinois in the United States Senate with his victory in the March Democratic Party primary, his keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in July, and his election to the Senate in November. He began his presidential campaign in 2007 and, after a close primary campaign against Hillary Rodham Clinton in 2008, he won sufficient delegates in the Democratic Party primaries to receive the presidential nomination. He then defeated Republican nominee John McCain in the general election, and was inaugurated as president on January 20, 2009. Nine months after his election, Obama was named the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize laureate.his first two years in office, Obama signed into law economic stimulus legislation in response to the Great Recession in the form of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010. Other major domestic initiatives in his first term included the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, often referred to as Obamacare raquo ;; the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act; and the Don t Ask, Don t Tell Repeal Act of 2010. In foreign policy, Obama ended US military involvement in the Iraq War, increased US troop levels in Afghanistan, signed the New START arms control treaty with Russia, ordered US military involvement in Libya, and ordered the military operation that resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden. In November +2010, the Republicans regained control of the House of Representatives as the Democratic Party lost a total of 63 seats; and, after a lengthy debate over federal spending and whether or not to raise the nation's debt limit, Obama signed the Budget Control Act of 2 011 and the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012.
Obama was re-elected president in November +2012, defeating Republican nominee Mitt Romney, and was sworn in for a second term on January 20, 2013. During his second term, Obama has promoted domestic policies related to gun control in response to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, and has called for full equality for LGBT Americans, while his administration has filed briefs which urged the Supreme Court to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act of +1996 and California's Proposition 8 as unconstitutional. In foreign policy, Obama ordered US military involvement in Iraq in response to gains made by the Islamic State in Iraq after the 2011 withdrawal from Iraq, and has continued the process of ending US combat operations in Afghanistan.
Aliyev
Heydar oglu Aliyev is the fourth and current President of Azerbaijan, since 2003. He also functions as the Chairman of the New Azerbaijan Party and the head of the National Olympic Committee. Apart from his native Azerbaijani, he speaks English, French, Russian, and Turkish. Ilham Aliyev is the son of Heydar Aliyev, who was Azerbaijan s president from 1993 to 2003.Ilham Aliyev s image remains largely controversial. He has been criticized for his authoritarian rule and sometimes described as the head of corruption in Europe by analysts and political commentators. Aliyev s government has been listed as one of the most corrupt in Europe by Transparency International. In +2009, following his reelection as president, Aliyev passed a referendum which removed the presidential consecutive term limit, thereby allowing him to run for president as many times as he wishes. Opposition claimed this to be a violation of the Azerbaijani constitution and the European convention on human rights.In 2013, Ilham Aliyev faced criticism from the United States and Amnesty International for election irregularities 'along with crackdowns against journalists and opposition activists, including the jailing of election monitors...
