Analyses
Russia's Dmitry Medvedev: his Inner Circle
By Reuters 5/3/08
Mar 6, 2008 - 11:20:41 AM

Analysts say there is a question mark over whether Medvedev will be able to install members of his circle into key posts because Putin and his team will remain influential even after the handover.

The following are some of the members of the Medvedev entourage who stand to gain influential roles in his administration, if he wins the freedom to make his own appointments.

The list is compiled from Reuters' own sources, media reports and think tank analytical studies.

*Alexander Voloshin. A chain-smoker known for using direct language when angry, Voloshin was the longest serving Kremlin chief of staff since the fall of the Soviet Union. Medvedev served for a time as his deputy. Voloshin left the Kremlin in 2003. Media reports said he resigned in response to the arrest of oil boss Mikhail Khodorkovsky. He is now chairman of the board of electricity utility RAO UES. The company's CEO is Anatoly Chubais, a former liberal reformer in the government.

*Dmitry Kozak. Like Medvedev he graduated from the law faculty at the state university in Leningrad, as St Petersburg was then known. One of Putin's most trusted troubleshooters, he was the Kremlin envoy in the turbulent North Caucasus and is now minister for regional development.

*Anton Ivanov. Another classmate at the Leningrad law faculty, Ivanov is now chairman of the Higher Arbitration Court. He is the only person Medvedev has named in public as a friend. He sits with the president-elect on the presidium of the Association of Russian Lawyers, as do several other Medvedev associates.

*Konstantin Chuichenko. Another St Petersburg-trained lawyer, he is the head of the legal department at gas giant Gazprom. Medvedev is chairman of the Gazprom board.

*Igor Shuvalov. A law graduate and Putin aide on economic affairs, Shuvalov is Russia's sherpa to the Group of Eight industrialized nations. Both Shuvalov and Medvedev are on the advisory board of the Skolkovo School of Management, a U.S.-style business school.

*Nikolai Vinnichenko. Head of the Federal Court Bailiffs Service, Vinnichenko started his career in the prosecutor's office in St Petersburg. He is also on the presidium of the Association of Russian Lawyers.

*Pavel Krasheninnikov. Another colleague from the lawyers' association, the bearded Krasheninnikov is a former justice minister who now chairs the legislation committee in the lower house of parliament.

*Alexander Konovalov. Also a graduate of the Leningrad law faculty, he later worked with Vinnichenko in the prosecutor's office there. He is now the president's envoy in the Volga region.

*Other members of Medvedev's circle include: Sergei Kazantsev, Constitutional Court judge; businessman and senator Valentin Zavadnikov; Mikhail Trinoga, head of Medvedev's secretariat in his current role as first deputy prime minister and Oleg Kutafin, co-chairman of the Association of Russian Lawyers and head of the Moscow State Law Academy.



Source: Ocnus.net 2007