Medvedev's Reshuffle: The Power Base Shifts

President Medvedev conducted a small reshuffle last week, which has been completely overlooked in the west, but which may represent a further marginalisation of Prime Minister Putin as the two men prepare to compete in upcoming Presidential elections in 2012.
 
Viktor Cherkesov was head of the Federal Arms Procurement Agency, a job in which he appeared to be spectacularly inept. A former KGB officer, Cherkesov rose to prominence in 2004 when he was appointed as head of the powerful Federal Drug Control Agency, which some analysts say was created to oversee the activities of the FSB, and to serve as a counterweight.
 
He fell out of favour when he began to leak information about infighting amongst the Siloviki, the shadowy Mafia-like group that controls - and indeed owns - most of Russia. Putin is very much the Godfather of the Siloviki, with Medvedev playing Duvall's Tom Hagen to Brandon's Don Corleone.
 
To continue the analogy, Cherkosov might have been cast as Fredo (as played by John Cazale) - inept, immature, corruptable, and with a confused sense of loyalty.
 
Cherkosov has now exited stage left, with Stanislav Belkovsky, founder of Moscow-based National Strategy Institute, remarking that “Cherkesov will now most likely be put in charge of some federal committee for putting bracelets on seagulls.”
 
The important aspect of this development, is that following Medvedev’s decree, the Federal Arms Procurement Agency was moved from its direct subordination to Vladimir Putin’s government structure to the jurisdiction of the Defence Ministry. This represents a weakening of the Putin empire. More power will now accrue to Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov, appointed to his office by Putin, but considered by many to be a reformist and a realist in the mould of Medvedev.
 
Medvedev has been using the global economic crisis as a stick to beat Putin with - the Prime Minister has responsibility for the economy - but has been carefully chipping away at his mentor's power base in other areas too.
 
Putin's pet project, the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, look like becoming an economic and environmental disaster, and we can expect that between now and the 2012 Presidential elections a great deal of information about this debacle will be allowed to "leak".