...President-for-Life of Russia. He gets along well with other presidents for life. He is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substance. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to him. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substances...on Tuesday approved a new Russian government that kept many veteran and senior ministers in place, but brought in a new economy minister and a new first deputy prime minister.
The new government was formed less than a week after Putin unveiled a sweeping shake-up of the political system, which led to the resignation of Dmitry Medvedev as prime minister along with his entire government.
Putin went on to pick Mikhail Mishustin, a 53-year-old with almost no political profile, as his new prime minister.
On Tuesday, Putin approved the line-up of a new government.
He named Andrei Belousov, his economy advisor since 2013, as Russia's new first deputy prime minister, replacing Anton Siluanov who had held the role since May 2018.
He also approved Maxim Reshetnikov, a former regional governor, as the country's new economy minister, replacing Maxim Oreshkin.
Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, Energy Minister Alexander Novak, Agriculture Minister Dmitry Patrushev, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov all kept their jobs in government, the Kremlin said.