Medvedev's Kremlin chiefs are Putin men

By Guy Faulconbridge and Michael Stott - Analysis

MOSCOW (Reuters) - How Russia's "tandem" government will work has become clear after a raft of top appointments: President Dmitry Medvedev sits in the front but Prime Minister Vladimir Putin controls the speed, direction and brakes.

The puzzle of which man would really run Russia's $1.3 trillion (666 billion pound) economy and control its vast natural resources has intrigued Kremlin-watchers since Putin said he would become premier after leaving the presidency and work under Medvedev.

Monday's appointments to the top Kremlin and government posts amounted to a clean sweep for Putin loyalists, many of them with KGB pasts. They will not only fill all the key cabinet posts but the main presidential jobs as well.

"A transplant of the organs of power", headlined Russia's Kommersant newspaper in an ironic comment on how control of the country has shifted from the Kremlin down the Moscow river to the prime minister's office.

Underlining his grip on power, Putin took the same seat he used as president when he met Medvedev in his old Kremlin office to propose the appointments. Medvedev sat in the guest's chair.

Medvedev's new Kremlin chief of staff, Sergei Naryshkin, is a quietly spoken Putin loyalist from St Petersburg. Russian media and foreign analysts say he served in the Soviet KGB, although he has never confirmed this.

The two deputy Kremlin chiefs -- critical posts in a country where power is heavily concentrated in the centre -- are Vladislav Surkov, Putin's top political strategist, and Alexei Gromov, a former Soviet diplomat who was Putin's press chief.

Georgy Bovt, a political commentator for a local radio station, said the Kremlin appointments bore Putin's stamp.