| But I think we all saw this coming ... |
Mikhail Lesin, a media adviser and former minister, is the most senior official to leave the Medvedev administration. In 2004 he was appointed a presidential adviser by Mr Putin — who is now the Prime Minister but still considered the real power in the land — and he was reappointed a week after Mr Medvedev took office in May last year.
In a terse, one-line statement announcing the departure, the Kremlin said that Mr Lesin had been “relieved of his duties at his own request”.
However, Interfax news agency quoted a source within the Government as saying that he had been fired because he “disregarded the rules and ethical principles of civil service”.
The source added that Mr Lesin, who has extensive media business interests, had “engaged in abuse of office in resolving matters not connected with his official duties”. The Vedomosti newspaper said that Mr Medvedev had ordered Mr Lesin to be dismissed over conflicts of interest.
In his annual address to parliament last week, Mr Medvedev condemned corruption as a “social evil” that threatened Russia’s future and he pledged to sack officials who abused public office.
| At least the ones who aren't his toadies ... |
Analysts are waiting to see if this is an isolated decision or the start of a wider clear-out as Mr Medvedev seeks to flex his muscles and build his own Kremlin team to give him greater political independence from Mr Putin.
The President inherited almost his entire staff from Mr Putin and has made no significant changes after 18 months in office. Most Russians expect him to stand aside at the next election in 2012 to allow Mr Putin to return to the Kremlin, but his state of the nation address, calling for urgent economic and political reform, was seen as coded criticism of his mentor.
Mr Lesin was a trusted figure under Mr Putin. He was Press and Television Minister throughout Mr Putin’s first term as President, when the Kremlin took almost total control of Russia’s media. He was a presidential adviser throughout Mr Putin’s second term. In 2002, a Russian media research centre described Mr Lesin as the “most influential personality of Russian television and radio”.
He also served under the former President, Boris Yeltsin, first as the KremlinÂ’s public relations chief and later as the deputy head of Russian state television and radio. He founded one of RussiaÂ’s leading TV advertising agencies in 1990 and organised commercial deals for the KVN comedy talent show, one of the countryÂ’s most popular programmes.
Mr Lesin was credited with the idea of establishing the state-funded 24-hour English-language news channel Russia Today. He said at the launch of the service four years ago that Russia had to polish its international image or “we’ll always look like bears”.