Putin promotes ally in succession battle
VLADIMIR Putin, the Russian president, last night promoted a close ally and former spy to the rank of first deputy prime minister from defence minister.
Sergei Ivanov, 54, a long-time KGB veteran, is considered the more hawkish of the two leading candidates to succeed Mr Putin as president in the 2008 elections.
Speculation about the succession has been intense, with Mr Putin refusing to give any hint about his intentions. However, the president’s unchallenged power means his electoral preference is likely to be decisive.
Mr Ivanov’s more than 20 years of service in the KGB and its successors have given him close contacts within Russia’s military and intelligence community. More recently, he has been leading a drive to sell Russian arms around the world.
Following the promotion, Mr Ivanov will have equal status to Dmitry Medvedev, the other presidential front-runner, who is generally viewed as representing the more liberal factions within the Kremlin.
“We agreed with the prime minister to expand the sphere of responsibilities of Sergei Ivanov … he will be co-ordinating part of the civilian sector of the economy,” Mr Putin said.
“No doubt the nomination is connected to the forthcoming elections,” said Alexander Golts, a military analyst. Commenting on recent bullying and abuse scandals in the armed forces, he said: “Ivanov seems to have realised that the defence ministry turned out to be a killer for any potential successor because too much negative information was coming from it.”
Mr Putin said that Mr Ivanov would retain responsibility for Russia’s large and lucrative military industry, but did not say what his new civilian economic responsibilities would be. Mr Ivanov was recently put in charge of reviving Russia’s ailing civil aviation industry.
Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman, said the changes were “not about elections” but were driven by Mr Putin’s desire to continue to transform Russia’s system of government and improve its economy.
“Ivanov’s position was technically equalled with that of Medvedev to simply confirm what everybody has been suspecting: there are two top candidates,” he said.
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