Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday moved seven former cabinet ministers to his Kremlin administration in defiance of pressure for new faces from street protesters against his rule. The swift reassignment of officials to the Kremlin one day after they formally left the cabinet further cements Putin’s command of Russia and limits the sway of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. But analysts said it also underscored both Putin’s continued refusal to look outside his team of most trusted advisors and amplified suspicions that his old guard were not prepared to fully embrace much-needed economic reforms. “It is obvious that the presidential administration intends to run everything,” former Kremlin advisor Gleb Pavlovsky told AFP. “Any talk of modernisation now is laughable,” added Higher School of Economics professor Yuly Nisnevich. Putin’s election in March was preceded by months of protests on the streets of Moscow over the prospect of the ex-KGB spy extending his 12-year domination of Russia until at least 2018 with the same clique of top officials.
