Putin promotes defense minister
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From Times Wire Reports
President Vladimir V. Putin promoted close ally Sergei B. Ivanov to the position of first deputy prime minister but replaced him as defense minister in a personnel reshuffle a little more than a year before Russia’s presidential election.
The shift puts Ivanov in the same position as Dmitry Medvedev, who along with Ivanov is seen as a leading contender for the mantle of the Kremlin’s favored successor to Putin.
Anatoly Serdyukov, head of the federal tax agency, replaces Ivanov as defense minister, Putin said.
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