Vladimir Putin reappoints Mikhail Mishustin as prime minister

Vladimir Putin has decided to keep his prime minister and not carry out a major shake-up of his government more than two years after ordering the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The Russian president on Friday asked parliament to confirm Mikhail Mishustin’s appointment and signed a bill approving a set of national goals for the new government until 2036.

Putin said “a lot had been achieved in difficult circumstances” during the technocrat’s first term in office and that he believed it would be “correct” for Mishustin to stay in the role.

The technocratic camp in government, though traditionally seen as more western-oriented, has managed to successfully steer the country’s economy through the first two years of war, maintaining stability despite international sanctions isolating Russia.

A former head of the country’s tax service, Mishustin first became PM in 2020, when Putin changed the Russian constitution to allow himself to stay in office beyond the four terms it originally permitted.

After his re-election in March, Putin started his fifth term in office on Tuesday, extending his quarter-century in power to at least 2030, with no end in sight to his war in Ukraine.

The Russian elite was preparing for a government reshuffle after the president asked for names for the next cabinet around the time of the presidential inauguration.

Few positions have been announced but three candidates have been put forward by the parliament for the role of the head of the Accounts Chamber, which has remained unfilled since Alexei Kudrin stepped down and left the country after the start of the invasion of Ukraine.

They include Boris Kovalchuk, son of one of Putin’s closest long-time friends. In March, the younger Kovalchuk was given a big career bump, appointed deputy in the presidential administration.

A promotion may also be on the cards for agriculture minister Dmitry Patrushev, the son of one of Putin’s closest allies for decades, head of the Security Council Nikolay Patrushev, according to RBC news magazine. The younger Patrushev, often described as a possible successor to Putin, may be given a job as a deputy prime minister, the magazine said.

Denis Manturov, head of the trade and industry ministry for the past 12 years, architect of Russia’s import replacement strategy in response to western sanctions, is expected to step down, with the post offered to a lesser-known figure, the current governor of the Kaliningrad region Anton Alikhanov.

The parliament will rubber-stamp other ministerial positions, once it receives the nominations. Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said that after approving Mishustin’s candidacy on Friday, the parliament will move on to deputy prime ministers, of which Russia currently has 10, and then to the 20 ministers. The process is expected to be completed by May 14.