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MOSCOW - Russian President Vladimir Putin has unexpectedly promoted one of the two men tipped to succeed him next year, fuelling speculation that the next occupant of the Kremlin has already been chosen.
In a stage-managed ceremony that had echoes of Russia's Soviet past, Putin promoted his hawkish Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov to Deputy First Prime Minister, a role which puts him in charge of the military-industrial complex.
The reshuffle means 54 year-old Ivanov will give up his job as Defence Minister leaving a relative unknown, Anatoly Serdyukov, formerly Head of Russia's Tax Service, in charge of maintaining one of the world's largest nuclear arsenals.
Crucially, it frees up Ivanov to orchestrate his election campaign ahead of a presidential ballot in March next year.
So far, he has been coy about declaring his interest, though few doubt that he is one of the most serious contenders to succeed Putin. In a country where the media is tightly controlled by the state, his sudden promotion and the way in which Putin publicly praised his record as Defence Minister are undoubtedly meant to be seen as a sign that his candidacy is favoured by the Russian leader.
"Sergei Borisovich coped with all the tasks that were put before him at the Defence Ministry and dealt with them successfully," Putin said using Ivanov's patronymic.
Putin has already served two consecutive terms as president and though he enjoys popular support, under the constitution he cannot stand for a third consecutive term.
The promotion puts Ivanov, a former KGB spy like Putin, on a par with the other man widely seen as a serious contender, Dmitri Medvedev. Also fluent in English and Swedish, Ivanov is credited with putting Russia's post-Soviet military back on its feet.
He is an articulate and charismatic defender of Russia's interests; most recently he spoke out strongly against American plans to place parts of its missile defence system in Poland and the Czech Republic. The Kremlin has been at pains to kill off the idea that Putin will choose his own successor.
Putin also dismissed the President of the war-battered republic of Chechnya and named its widely feared Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov as acting President.
The dismissal of Alu Alkhanov came after days of speculation that he was engaged in an intense power struggle with Kadyrov, who is alleged by human rights groups to be responsible for abductions and detention of civilians and suspected separatist rebels.
SERGEI IVANOV
Born on January 31, 1953, into a military family in St Petersburg (then called Leningrad).
He studied languages at Leningrad University, spent some months living with a family in London, then worked for 20 years in foreign intelligence. He also speaks Swedish and English.
Like Putin, he is a native of St Petersburg and a former KGB spy. They have known each other since the 1970s.
In August 1998, Ivanov became deputy director of the FSB domestic security service, one of the KGB's successor bodies. Putin headed the service then.
He became secretary of the Kremlin's advisory Security Council in November 1999 on Putin's advice. He became defence minister in March 2001.
Ivanov has rejected US arguments for deploying an anti-missile defence system in eastern Europe and insisted Russia would not be drawn into a Cold War-style arms race.
He also said Russia would upgrade its own defence systems to make sure its strategic arsenal was not rendered ineffective.
He has repeatedly denied any ambitions for the Kremlin's top job. "That matter does not interest me," he said in 2005. "The president ... has entrusted to me the difficult task of modernising the armed forces."
- INDEPENDENT, REUTERS
