RUSSIA:President Vladimir Putin named a little-known financial regulator as Russia's new prime minister yesterday, confounding predictions that a prominent ally would be given the job in preparation to succeed the Kremlin leader when he steps down next year.
Viktor Zubkov (65) was named to replace Mikhail Fradkov who, upon order, handed the resignation of his cabinet to Mr Putin after more than three years as premier.
"We all have to think together how to build the structure of the government and leadership so that it better corresponds to the pre-election period and prepares the country for the period after the presidential election," Mr Putin said.
He was referring to December's parliamentary ballot and next year's vote to replace him after two terms in the Kremlin.
Speculation had swirled in Moscow that Mr Putin would replace Mr Fradkov with the man he wanted to succeed him as president.
This was widely predicted to be one of two current deputy prime ministers - Sergei Ivanov or Dmitry Medvedev.
No one expected the appointment of Mr Zubkov, the long-time head of the Financial Monitoring Service that combats money-laundering and managed to get Russia removed from an international blacklist of countries that are failing to fight illegal cash flows.
Mr Zubkov was born in a village in the Ural mountains and worked as a fitter in a factory before qualifying as an economist and running collective farms in the Leningrad region surrounding St Petersburg, Mr Putin's home town.
He joined the St Petersburg administration in 1985 and worked as a finance and tax official alongside Mr Putin in the mayor's office in the 1990s.
Then, he left to head the Financial Monitoring Service in 2001, when his former colleague was already president.
Minister of finance Alexei Kudrin called Mr Zubkov "a legendary man who did a lot to develop the economy of the Leningrad region, to build up its tax service.
"It was he who created from scratch the whole system of fighting against money-laundering."
However, few analysts saw him as a realistic successor to Mr Putin.
"We see him as a prime minister who will guarantee succession but not as a future president," said Yevgeny Nadorshin of Moscow's Trust Bank.
Other commentators suggested that Mr Zubkov might act as a "puppet" president, controlled by Mr Putin until his return to the Kremlin after one term away.
"Zubkov is almost completely unknown and not a young man," said Ron Smith, chief strategist of Moscow's Alfa Bank.
"This appointment lends credence to the theory that the next president could be a one-term 'place-holder' before the return of Mr Putin."
Whatever his long-term role, no one expects Mr Zubkov to do anything other than the bidding of his Kremlin boss.
"He was a pretty colourless, grey person," said a former colleague of Mr Zubkov's when he was head of the tax inspectorate in St Petersburg.
"He did not generate ideas. He was someone who carried out instructions."
