Putin announces cabinet line-up

Mr Putin proposed his cabinet to his successor as president, Mr Medvedev

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is proposing the names of ministers in his new government, which will work with President Dmitry Medvedev.

Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin will be retaining his post and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also keeps his position.

Anatoly Serdyukov stays as Defence Minister and ex-PM Viktor Zubkov is First Deputy PM and Fisheries Minister.

Mr Putin moved to the post of PM last week after his protege, Mr Medvedev, assumed the presidency.

Mr Putin read out the names at a government meeting attended by reporters.

Influential figures

In other appointments, Igor Shuvalov is also to become first deputy prime minister, and Sergei Ivanov and Alexander Zhukov will both be deputy prime ministers.

Two influential figures from Mr Putin's time as president come into the cabinet for the first time.

Igor Sechin, who was deputy head of Kremlin administration, and is also head of the oil giant Rosneft, will become another deputy prime minister. He is seen as a hardliner.

The former head of Kremlin administration, Sergei Sobyanin, also becomes a deputy prime minister, as well as government chief of staff.

There will be a new ministries of tourism and sport, and of ecology, while the industries and energy ministry is split into two.

The proposed cabinet now needs to be approved by Mr Medvedev, who succeeded Mr Putin as president last Wednesday.