The eight-year presidency of Vladimir Putin will come to an end today according to a carefully scripted scenario as his successor Dmitry Medvedev is sworn into office. Mr Putin is almost certain to be named as Prime Minister tomorrow, and many analysts expect him to continue calling the shots. Mr Medvedev will arrive at the Kremlin at midday local time, where in front of assembled dignitaries and politicians he will swear an oath on the constitution.Most analysts expect Mr Medvedev to continue, at least initially, the domestic and foreign policy course charted by Mr Putin. "There's an expectation among investors that there will be more of the same," said Roland Nash, head of research at Renaissance Capital in Moscow. "Anything that isn't will be a surprise."
The eight-year presidency of Vladimir Putin will come to an end today according to a carefully scripted scenario as his successor Dmitry Medvedev is sworn into office. Mr Putin is almost certain to be named as Prime Minister tomorrow, and many analysts expect him to continue calling the shots.
Mr Medvedev will arrive at the Kremlin at midday local time, where in front of assembled dignitaries and politicians he will swear an oath on the constitution.
Most analysts expect Mr Medvedev to continue, at least initially, the domestic and foreign policy course charted by Mr Putin. "There's an expectation among investors that there will be more of the same," said Roland Nash, head of research at Renaissance Capital in Moscow. "Anything that isn't will be a surprise."
MOSCOW: When Dmitri Medvedev, the president-elect, utters the oath of office Wednesday in the czarist splendor of St. Andrew's Hall, the event will be broadcast throughout the Russian-speaking world as an implicit triumph of the leadership of President Vladimir Putin. Putin, the KGB officer turned head of state who has governed Russia as it regained its footing after a decade of post-Soviet disorder, will have voluntarily left office at the heights of popularity. And Medvedev, his personally selected successor, will be cast as a modernizing figure assuming the presidency of a proud nation freshly saved from poverty and disgrace. The Kremlin then plans to mark the occasion on Friday with a military parade in Red Square of a sort not seen since the Cold War, complete with flyovers of strategic bombers and rumbling columns of tanks. Medvedev will be Russia's third post-Soviet president, and newest source of speculation. He has presented a puzzling self-portrait, at times suggesting that major changes are necessary - including attacking the country's manifest corruption and reducing the bloat of its bureaucracy - and other times insisting he will broadly follow the path chosen by his sponsor.
MOSCOW: When Dmitri Medvedev, the president-elect, utters the oath of office Wednesday in the czarist splendor of St. Andrew's Hall, the event will be broadcast throughout the Russian-speaking world as an implicit triumph of the leadership of President Vladimir Putin.
Putin, the KGB officer turned head of state who has governed Russia as it regained its footing after a decade of post-Soviet disorder, will have voluntarily left office at the heights of popularity. And Medvedev, his personally selected successor, will be cast as a modernizing figure assuming the presidency of a proud nation freshly saved from poverty and disgrace.
The Kremlin then plans to mark the occasion on Friday with a military parade in Red Square of a sort not seen since the Cold War, complete with flyovers of strategic bombers and rumbling columns of tanks.
Medvedev will be Russia's third post-Soviet president, and newest source of speculation. He has presented a puzzling self-portrait, at times suggesting that major changes are necessary - including attacking the country's manifest corruption and reducing the bloat of its bureaucracy - and other times insisting he will broadly follow the path chosen by his sponsor.
