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Last Updated: May 12th, 2008 - 19:17:59 |
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Incoming Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announced a cabinet line-up on Monday which combined key ministers and powerful Kremlin figures into an unusually strong team under his command.
President Dmitry Medvedev, who took over from Putin last Wednesday, announced three top appointments of his own, including the powerful chief of the Kremlin administration.
But all of them signaled close continuity with Putin.
Medvedev and Putin have pledged to rule Russia together in an unprecedented "tandem" arrangement. But many analysts said the appointments confirmed that Putin remains the real boss, at least for now.
Key Putin ally Sergei Naryshkin -- a former government chief of staff reported by Russian media to have links to the security services -- was named head of Medvedev's Kremlin administration.
"I don't think the appointment of Sergei Naryshkin as head of the presidential administration is the decision of Dmitry Medvedev," said independent political analyst Georgy Bovt.
"I think it is the decision of Vladimir Putin and I don't actually see any appointments apart from (new Justice Minister) Konovalov that you can put down exclusively to Dmitry Medvedev."
Putin re-appointed his long-serving Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, seen by markets as a guarantor of Russia's free-market policies. Sergei Lavrov, the public face of Moscow's assertive, anti-Western diplomacy, also stayed on as Foreign Minister.
Former prime minister and ex-collective farm boss Viktor Zubkov continued in the cabinet as one of two first deputy prime ministers -- the most senior posts after Putin's. The other was Igor Shuvalov, who was Putin's top economic aide at the Kremlin.
"Overall, there are no surprises," said Yevgeny Gavrilenkov, chief economist at Moscow brokerage Troika Dialog.
"It is no doubt a positive sign that Kudrin, known for his conservative policies, has stayed ... It is logical that people who worked with Putin in the presidential administration moved to the government."
Among the few major changes were the removal of Telecoms Minister Leonid Reiman, who has repeatedly denied media reports that he indirectly owns a major stake in Russia's number three mobile operator Megafon.
Medvedev's other two key appointments were the naming of former FSB spy service chief Nikolai Patrushev, a close Putin ally, to run Russia's powerful Security Council and the promotion of FSB deputy chief Alexander Bortnikov to replace Patrushev.
Bortnikov was previously head of the FSB in Putin's home city of St Petersburg.
Under Russia's constitution, the prime minister proposes cabinet names to the president, who must approve them before they are final.
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