RUSSIA: Russian president Vladimir Putin yesterday completed a cabinet reshuffle that has promoted key figures and further tightened the Kremlin's ruling circle.
The appointment of his chief of staff Dmitri Medvedev and his defence minister Sergei Ivanov, as deputy prime ministers has also raised expectations that one of these men is designated to be nominated as Mr Putin's successor in 2008.
Dmitry Medvedev (40) has worked with the president since the two men were part of the city council of St Petersburg's late mayor Anatoly Sobchak.
The move by both men to the inner sanctum of government is part of Mr Putin's effort to stiffen the spine of an executive that takes its orders from the Kremlin.
Prime minister Mikhail Fradkov is a technocrat, seen in Moscow more as an official, charged with running the engine room, rather than as a decision-maker in his own right.
Yesterday saw a fresh decree increasing the number of deputy prime ministers from two to three, though the final member of this new triumvirate is unclear.
The result of this shuffle is that power in Russia is wielded by a tiny group of men. Mr Putin's United Russia party controls parliament and follows the Kremlin's lead - in effect rubber-stamping Mr Putin's policies. Earlier this year parliament backed Mr Putin's plan to scrap elections for regional governors, who are now picked by the president.
Mr Putin has also streamlined cabinet government, cutting the number of posts from 30 to 17, and has begun work on cutting the number of regions from 89 to a more manageable number, thought to be around 30.
Mr Putin's new chief of staff is Kremlin loyalist Sergei Sobyanin, a regional governor from Siberia. It is not known why his existing deputy chief of staff Igor Sechen did not step up to the senior post, although reports in the Russian media say relations are not good between him and Mr Medvedev.
With the Kremlin controlling all network TV stations, and also oil and gas, Mr Putin has achieved an unprecedented control of Russia. But this control is both strong and brittle.
With Mr Putin perceived to be running everything, it is difficult for the Kremlin to blame the woes of the country, from rampant corruption to an economic slowdown, on anybody else.
With the only opposition in parliament coming from the enfeebled remnants of the Communist party, the only real avenue for civic protest is the streets.