Putin names power-bolstering Cabinet
MOSCOW - Prime Minister Vladimir Putin wasted no time in naming his new Cabinet yesterday, bringing in loyalists from the Kremlin in what was seen as an effort to shift the center of power to his new place of work.
He also left several prominent ministers untouched, including Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov, and Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin.
Putin announced the 24 positions, eight of them new, at a Cabinet meeting in the government headquarters, the ministers already seated according to their new appointments.
President Dmitry Medvedev, Putin's hand-picked successor who was inaugurated last week, quickly approved the appointments, which included the demotion of a former rival. Putin named the hawkish Sergei Ivanov, once seen as a top candidate to succeed him as president, as one of his deputy prime ministers, a step down from his previous position as first deputy premier.
Bolstering the economy was one of the priorities listed by Putin when he presented himself as prime minister-designate to the parliament last week.
His move from the Kremlin to the Cabinet residence up the Moscow River allows him to remain a hugely influential figure in the country's politics and many observers expect him to overshadow Medvedev.
"Medvedev has a very narrow set of choices and opportunities," said political analyst Dmitry Oreshkin. "He will accept the conditions Putin imposes on him and will not take steps that would spoil his image as [Putin's] successor."
Putin was shown describing the structure of the new Cabinet in footage that dominated news broadcasts throughout the day. He looked and sounded presidential when he discussed the changes with Medvedev in televised remarks.
"It was enough to see how Putin talked to Medvedev to understand who is the boss," commentator Anton Orekh said on Ekho Moskvy radio. "Putin was the main hero."
Medvedev received significantly less air time yesterday.
The most striking change was the dismissal of Nikolai Patrushev as head of the KGB successor agency, the Federal Security Service. He was made head of the presidential Security Council and replaced by one of his former deputies, Alexander Bortnikov.
Political analyst Andrei Soldatov said Bortnikov's appointment is a Kremlin effort to rein in the security agency, which under Putin had regained much former clout.
"Bortnikov is Medvedev's man, and his appointment seems to be an attempt to put the security structures under the thumb of Kremlin insiders with strictly economic interests," Soldatov said.
