MOSCOW (AFP) — Russia's Vladimir Putin was to be confirmed Thursday as prime minister, a day after his aide Dmitry Medvedev became president in a power shift that raises questions over who will really be in charge.
There was no doubt that Putin, 55, would win parliamentary backing: his United Russia party alone controls more than two thirds of seats.
Putin's move to the premiership after eight years as president completed a carefully choreographed scheme in which his trusted protege Medvedev, 42, was inaugurated president on Wednesday.
The two have indicated they will rule as an informal tandem, something unprecedented in Russia, where overwhelming authority has traditionally rested with the Kremlin.
Following a grandiose inauguration ceremony in the Kremlin's golden Andreyevsky Hall, Medvedev 's first act as president was to nominate his former boss for the prime minister's post.
The other decrees issued on his first day concerned only housing and veterans and neither man gave any indication of who will be in the new government.
"Some noted that for the first time there was almost no clear future -- except for the prime minister's post, of course," the state-run Rossiyskaya Gazeta wrote Thursday.
"Theories are being built and broken down, cards shuffled this way and that, but there are still five aces in the deck -- because the real transfer of power is still ahead," the daily added.
Putin remains popular among Russians who credit him with the country's economic revival on the back of massive energy exports and a newly assertive role on the world stage.
But while he vows to cooperate closely with Medvedev, both leaders have claimed major power for their respective new offices, leading some analysts and Russian newspapers to predict a potentially unstable partnership.
Many observers see the most likely outcome as a broad continuation of Putin's policies, but some believe Medvedev, a former corporate lawyer, could soften Putin's more hardline positions.
Medvedev is the youngest Kremlin leader for more than a century and, unlike Putin or most other members of Russia's ruling elite, he has no known past in the KGB or other security services.
In Medvedev's brief Kremlin speech after being inaugurated he highlighted the need to bring Russians greater "civil and economic freedom."
Medvedev soon got his first taste of his vast new powers when a military officer presented him Wednesday with a briefcase that controls Russia's nuclear arsenal.
That power will be on display on Friday when Russia's Topol-M intercontinental ballistic missiles will be rolled through Red Square in a Victory Day parade that will feature heavy weaponry for the first time since the Soviet era.
Medvedev and Putin were to review the parade, which is being seen as much as an assertion of Russia's new military might as a commemoration of the end of the World War II.
Under the constitution, Medvedev has the right to fire his prime minister and dismiss the government at any time. Following reforms by Putin, parliament has been hugely weakened and provides little oversight.
However, now that Putin is starting a new career as prime minister and leader of the ruling United Russia party, that may change.
With two thirds of votes in the legislature, United Russia can in theory change the constitution.
The Duma, or lower house of parliament, was due to convene at 12:00 pm (0800 GMT) to confirm Putin's nomination.
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