FACTBOX: Key facts on Russia's Dmitry Medvedev

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin's trusted protege Dmitry Medvedev is overwhelming favorite to win the March 2 presidential election.

The following are the key sections of Medvedev's biography.

EARLY LIFE

Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev was born Sept 14, 1965. His parents were teachers and he grew up in a 40 square meter (430 square ft) flat in a suburb of Leningrad, as St Petersburg was then called.

He says his favorite childhood books were the Soviet Encyclopaedia -- similar to the Encyclopaedia Britannica -- and Jules Verne's Children of Captain Grant.

"He was a leader, people listened to him. He is calm, disciplined and confident," said Irina Grigorovskaya, his mathematics teacher at school 305, where he met his wife. "He was well read from a young age and he read a lot."

Medvedev says the family never starved and holidayed on the Black Sea, a typical Soviet middle-class destination, but money was sometimes too short to buy the records he dreamed of.

A fan of British hard rock bands Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and Deep Purple, Medvedev said he became disillusioned with Soviet propaganda.

Medvedev was christened into the Russian Orthodox church aged 23 in St Petersburg.