The magic of armchairs

Vladimir Putin presented proposals on the structure of the new government to President Dmitry Medvedev on Monday in the Kremlin. Viktor Zubkov and Igor Shuvalov became the first deputy prime ministers, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said at a government meeting. Sergei Sobyanin became Deputy Prime Minister - head of the government apparatus. Alexander Zhukov, Sergei Ivanov, and Igor Sechin also became deputy prime ministers. Alexey Kudrin retained the post of Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of Finance of the Russian Federation.

Tangible changes: Nikolai Patrushev was appointed Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, and Alexander Bortnikov became the new director of the FSB. Sergei Naryshkin has been appointed Head of the Russian Presidential Administration. Note that we have not yet heard anything about a new post for Vladislav Surkov.
Igor Shchegolev was appointed Minister of Communications and Mass Media, Alexander Avdeev - Minister of Culture. The head of the Russian Football Union, Vitaly Mutko, has been appointed head of the new ministry for sports, youth and tourism. The Ministry of Industry and Energy is divided into two ministries - the Ministry of Energy, headed by Sergei Shmatko, and the Ministry of Industry, headed by Viktor Khristenko. Alexander Konovalov was appointed Minister of Justice.
In general, according to Putin, the Russian government has been renewed by two-thirds.
An interesting detail: during the meeting in the Kremlin, Putin was sitting in his usual “presidential” seat, and the recent “successor” Medvedev was in the chair that he was used to occupying as deputy prime minister.