2003 in Russia

Events from the year 2003 in Russia.

Incumbents

 * President - Vladimir Putin
 * Prime Minister - Mikhail Kasyanov

March

 * 23 March - A referendum in the break-away republic of Chechnya approves a new constitution.

April

 * 17 April - Assassination of Sergei Yushenkov, co-chairman of the Liberal Russia party and critic of President Vladimir Putin.
 * 29 April - Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Tony Blair holds a one-day summit with President Putin. Putin mocks Britain's and America's failure to locate weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

May

 * 12 May - 2003 Znamenskoye suicide bombing: Three suicide bombers drive a truck bomb into the FSB directorate complex in Znamenskoye, Chechen Republic killing at least 59 people.

July

 * 2 July - 36-year-old billionaire oil baron Roman Abramovich buys the English football club Chelsea for £140million.

October

 * 25 October - Arrest of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, chairman of the YUKOS oil company, on charges of fraud.
 * 27 October–30 October - The stock market falls by 16.5% as the arrest of Mikhail Khodorkovsky is seen as politically motivated leading to a loss in business confidence.

December

 * 4 December: A Chechen suicide bomber killed 41 aboard a train near Yessentuki Station
 * 7 December - President Putin's United Russia party wins the largest number of seats in the legislative election.
 * 31 December - the end of the birth of the Russian Millennium generation

Notable births

 * 23 January – Apollinariia Panfilova, pair skater
 * 7 March – Polina Kostiukovich, Russian pair skater
 * 30 April – Misha Smirnov, singer, producer-songwriter
 * 4 July – Polina Bogusevich, singer

January

 * 18 January - Boris Struminsky, 63, Russian and Ukrainian physicist.
 * 26 January -
 * Valeriy Brumel, 60, Soviet high jumper (men's Olympic high jump medals: 1960 silver, 1964 gold).
 * Vladimir Mulyavin, 62, Belarusian and Russian rock musician, complications after car accident.

April

 * 17 April - Sergei Yushenkov, politician (born 1950)

May

 * 28 May - Ilya Prigogine, Russian-born physicist and chemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (born 1917)

July

 * 5 July - Roman Lyashenko, hockey player (born 1979)

September

 * 23 September - Yuri Senkevich, TV anchorman (born 1937)