The Russian president unsurprisingly reappointed Mikhail Mishustin as Prime Minister on Friday.
Mikhail Mishustin and other cabinet technocrats are credited with maintaining relatively stable economic performance despite Western sanctions imposed after the invasion of Ukraine.
In accordance with Russian law, Mikhail Mishustin, 58, who had held the post for four years, resigned from his cabinet on Tuesday, when Mr. Putin began his fifth presidential term.
The former head of Russia’s tax service stayed away from political statements and avoided media interviews during his previous term.
The speaker of the lower house of Parliament, Vyacheslav Volodin, announced that Mr. Putin had submitted the candidacy of Mikhail Mishustin to the Duma.
Under constitutional amendments approved in 2020, the lower house approves the candidacy of the prime minister, who then submits cabinet members for approval. The changes were supposed to give parliament broader powers, but the procedure is widely seen as a formality, given the Kremlin’s control over the body.
Most cabinet members are expected to remain in their posts, but it is unclear whether Sergei Shoigu, the defense minister, will be among them following the arrest last month of his top associate, Timur Ivanov.
Mr. Ivanov, who was deputy defense minister and responsible for large-scale military construction projects, was arrested on corruption charges and ordered to remain in detention pending trial. opening of an official investigation.
Ivanov’s arrest was interpreted as an attack on Sergei Shoigu and a possible harbinger of his dismissal, despite his close personal ties to Vladimir Putin.
Sergei Shoigu was criticized for the setbacks suffered by the Russian army at the start of the invasion of Ukraine.
