Vladimir Putin bumped a key Kremlin official who oversaw a crushing victory.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday bumped a key Kremlin official who oversaw a crushing victory for the ruling party at polls last week to parliament speaker, as he continued to shuffle top posts.
Putin nominated Vyacheslav Volodin, the reputed mastermind behind United Russia's romp to a record number of seats, to take over in parliament a day after shifting the outgoing speaker Sergei Naryshkin to take charge of the country's foreign intelligence service.
The move is the latest in a string of shuffles by Putin that has seen long-term allies replaced by a new generation of loyalists as many suspect the Kremlin strongman is eyeing up a run for a fourth term as president at elections in 2018.
Russia's parliament is seen as a toothless rubber-stamp chamber but the new position for 52-year-old Volodin -- who was deputy head of Putin's presidential administration -- will see him boost his public profile.
Ex-Duma boss Naryshkin, 61, -- who reportedly served in the Soviet-era KGB spy agency alongside Putin -- is one of the Russian officials on Western sanctions lists over the crisis in Ukraine that have hindered him travelling in Europe and the US.
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