Vladimir Putin has accepted the resignation of the chief of his presidential staff, Alexander Voloshin, and promoted his deputy, 37-year-old Dmitry Medvevev, to the post. In truth, this means that the hawkish clan, often dubbed ‘St.Petersburgers’, have failed to fully defeat the so-called Kremlin old guard – by appointing Medvedev, seen as a moderate pro-business figure, not a hardliner, Putin has preserved in his entourage a certain counter-balance to ‘siloviki’, however, all of the new appointees are figures dependent on them.
http://www.gazeta.ru/2003/10/31/PutinletsVol.shtml
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