President Putin made some cabinet shuffles today. It’s looking interesting.

MOSCOW — President Vladimir Putin gave his defense minister the additional post of deputy prime minister Monday in a Cabinet shake-up he said was designed to bolster efforts to improve Russia’s military.

At a cabinet meeting shown on television station NTV, Putin said the appointment of Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov was aimed at overcoming a lack of coordination among ministries.

Putin also named his chief of staff Dmitry Medvedev to become first deputy prime minister. Both Medvedev and Ivanov have been seen as potential candidates to run for president in 2008, when Putin is constitutionally prevented from seeking a third term. Speculation had been high recently that he would try to increase both men’s visibility.

Putin said Ivanov’s appointment followed a meeting last week in which “the participants expressed anxiety about the problems the Defense Ministry had been meeting in realizing its plans for future development.”

“These problems are connected with non-agreement of the activities of various ministries and departments,” he added.

Alright, forget the main point of that article except for the part about trying to make the men more visible.

First, let’s look at Ivanov. As head of the Defense Ministry, he’s already very powerful. The added position of deputy prime minister will only add to this. The fact that Ivanov is considered part of Putin’s inside circle is one of the most important aspects of this. As Putin’s confidante, Ivanov certainly has his ear at all times and is perhaps one of the most influential people on the president. He’s a tough and shrewd character who Putin trusts greatly, making him a likely candidate for the presidency once Putin retires. Putin wants someone who will continue his policies once he retires, unlike what happened when Putin won the presidency and did an about-face on the oligarchy that launched him into that position in the first place.

Now, there’s Dmitry Medvedev, Putin’s chief of staff. Also a very powerful man, he has been elevated to the position of first deputy prime minister in addition to his current job. But more than that, he is the chairman of Gazprom, which is Russia’s energy goliath after the government-initiated downfall of Yukos. Whereas Yukos was in the hands of an opposition political figure, Gazprom is firmly in the current government’s sphere of influence (given that the chairman is Putin’s friggin’ chief of staff and first deputy prime minister!). And by the way, when I say goliath, I mean goliath. The company is buying up assets to all sorts of companies, the most worrying of which are several independent media outlets. In sum, by the time this is all over, Gazprom will probably dominate both the energy and media markets, giving the government an insane amount of influence over both domestic and global affairs.

I would consider these appointments completely political in nature, designed to put these men in positions of power for the upcoming presidential elections. The way they dominate and have the trust of President Putin himself goes to show that they are being bred to carry on his legacy. They just need the public to know them. That’s what’s happening. These are the men to watch.