Former spy shadows Putin for throne
By Guy Faulconbridge Fri Apr 6, 3:59 AM ET
SARANSK, Russia (Reuters) - Sergei Ivanov walks and talks like a man who wants to be the next president of Russia, except for one thing: he has not said he is running for the job.
On a trip to a central Russian province that had all the hallmarks of a campaign trip, he toured factories, chatted with townsfolk and squeezed the hand of a four-year-old girl.
Then came the awkward moment. "We hope to see you as president," one resident shouted out.
Ivanov, a suave former KGB spy, tensed for just a fraction of a second, blinked and then resumed his conversation about mortgages and child benefit.
It is still anybody's guess who will succeed President
Vladimir Putin when his second and final term ends next year. His potential heirs are careful not to show any naked ambition until Putin himself has expressed a preference.
What is clear, though, is that the candidate who gets the blessing of the hugely popular Putin is highly likely to stroll through the 2008 presidential election.
And Ivanov, along with his fellow First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, is a front-runner to be that person.
"If Putin does leave, then Ivanov has the number one chance," Olga Kryshtanovskaya, an academic who has studied the Russian elite since 1989, told Reuters.
"Ivanov is the closest person to Putin, a close friend and they have very good relations. If Medvedev is, say, Putin's adopted son, then Ivanov is his brother," she said.
FRONT-RUNNER
Ivanov's front-runner status has left Russian voters -- as well as foreign investors -- keen to get a feel for the man, and the sort of president he would make.
The 54-year-old worked as a spy in Scandinavia, Africa and Western Europe. The period left its mark: Ivanov speaks fluent English, though he prefers not to use it in public, and has a taste for English espionage novels.
Ivanov has a wry sense of humour and is noticeably more of a natural performer than Medvedev.
He also has a keen eye for populists slogans. This week he urged Russian consumers to boycott goods from ex-Soviet Estonia, which has angered many Russians with plans to move a memorial to Soviet troops.
Dressed in a black polo-neck sweater and navy blazer, Ivanov last week toured the railway-truck factory in Saransk, a town 630 km (390 miles) east of Moscow.
Officers from the Federal Security Service kept a close eye on a Reuters reporter during Ivanov's tour.
Displaying his common touch, he told workers at the factory he had come to learn about the economy, asked about their wages and joked about the weather.
"It was very pleasant to speak to him," said Valentina, a worker at the plant. "He speaks in a laid-back manner."
One person who has been in close contact with Ivanov over several years said he was more at home with grand strategy than talking to the people.
"He is a master strategist, an intellectual and quite brilliant, but for him people are part of a system, elements in a strategy - he doesn't feel people. There is a coldness there," the source said.
From the factory, Ivanov went on to light a candle in Saransk's Orthodox Church and then walked out to speak with a mother walking her baby.
"I see you are fulfilling the demographic plan," Ivanov said wryly.
Ivanov has made political missteps. In his previous job as defence minister, he was caught out by news that a conscript had his legs and genitals amputated after a bout of bullying.
He initially told reporters that if the case was important his aides would have told him about it.
But his promotion in February to the post of first deputy prime minister released him from the defence portfolio. His new duties, in overall charge of industrial policy, give him a higher profile, and greater exposure on television.