Today marks a year since Dmitry Medvedev was inaugurated as President. Yet despite all this time he was unable to draw clear dividing lines between his powers and those of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
The powers of the President and the Prime Minister are defined in the Constitution, and last year showed there was no overlapping or duplication of their functions, says Natalia Timakova, the presidential spokeswoman. An outside observer, however, is not always sure who is responsible for what.
Governors
The President's relations with envoys to federal districts and with governors have changed most of all in the past year. Under Mr Putin, it was envoys who proposed candidates for governors to the President. On Mr Medvedev's suggestion, the Duma adopted a law granting the powers to select candidates to parties. The law is to come into effect early in June. But the influence of envoys has already been on the wane throughout the year.
Under Mr Putin, some envoys could in fact appoint their own governors. The Far Eastern envoy, Kamil Iskhakov, a former Kazan mayor, had his fellow-townsman Nikolai Kolesov appointed head of the Amur Region. Mikhail Men, who came to head the Ivanovo Region, was the protégé of Georgy Poltavchenko, the Central District envoy, said a source in the Moscow Government.
Under Mr Medvedev, governors began to be appointed sometimes against the will of envoys - Siberian envoy Anatoly Kvashnin, for example, was opposed to the appointment of Deputy Viktor Zimin as Governor of Khakassia in December 2008, a State Duma deputy said.
Far Eastern Envoy Oleg Safonov entered into open conflict with the Prosecutor-General's Office and several governors, and this fact was acknowledged by all sides: Mr Medvedev last week preferred to sack Mr Safonov.
Governors are appointed by the President. But the procedure is now prefaced by an obligatory call by Presidential Chief of Staff Sergei Naryshkin to Mr Putin before putting the list before Mr Medvedev. Some governors seek the support of both leaders. Primorye Territory Governor Sergei Darkin, when threatened with sacking, aired his prospects both with Mr Putin and Mr Medvedev.
Businessmen
Businessmen now have to call on both the Prime Minister and the President, says a source in the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs. "We currently have more top level meetings of all kinds," agrees Opora leader Sergei Borisov.
Businessmen are not very clear with whom of the leaders they should agree key deals. A major banking merger of the year - the union between MDM Bank and Ursa Bank - was discussed by MDM Bank Chairman Oleg Vyugin with Mr Putin in December. Auto industry is mostly the concern of Mr Putin. Following two meetings in Naberezhnye Chelny (autumn of 2008) and Toglyatti in March duties on foreign cars were raised, the state agreed to subsidise interest rates on car-buying loans, and AvtoVAZ was promised an interest-free budget subsidy of 25 billion roubles.
But in January of this year, Oleg Deripaska, Viktor Vekselberg, Mikhail Prokhorov, Vladimir Potanin and Alisher Usmanov went to Medvedev to discuss the establishment of a global steel and mining group based on Norilsk Nickel and Metalloinvest. A month later, Mr Potanin and Mr Deripaska went to Mr Medvedev again to tell him about their failure. Debt problems of UC RusAL were taken up by the Presidential Executive Office: Mr Medvedev's aide Arkady Dvorkovich wrote a letter to the company's lenders, explaining to them that RusAL, like all strategic enterprises, could look to state support.
Ministers
Although Monday meetings with key Cabinet members are no longer practised by the President (now they are Mr Putin's prerogative), both the President and the Prime Minister concern themselves with economics. Being head of state, Mr Medvedev decides the key strategic issues, although on a number of questions he consults Mr Putin, says Dmitry Peskov, the Prime Minister's spokesman. Regarding tactical matters, including economic management, wide constitutional powers are wielded by the Prime Minister, he said.
Formulation of anti-crisis measures is the Government's right, but there have been instances when the initiative came from the Presidential Executive Office, the Kremlin official said. As early as last December, the Kremlin took up the subject of lowering the Central Bank's refinancing rate as an anti-crisis measure, while the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank rejected it as premature. In April, however, the Bank did cut the rate, though by 0.5%. The Presidential Executive Office also spawned ideas for supporting the Agency for Housing Mortgage Lending and for issuing banks with subordinated loans.
Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov, who was appointed in 2007, received the goahead for the military reform before Mr Medvedev was elected. So he is not obliged to punctually agree his personnel decisions with either of the ruling tandem, believes a Defence Ministry official. All appointments, as stipulated by procedure, go through the Presidential Executive Office. But Mr Serdyukov, when he began mooting his resignation several months ago, went to discuss the matter with Mr Putin, according to a source close to Mr Serdyukov (although security-related ministers are subordinated to the President).
The appointment of a new FSB head, Alexander Bortnikov, was also agreed between Mr Putin and Mr Medvedev before the latter was sworn in, although formally Mr Bortnikov was appointed after the inauguration, says a source in the secret services. Personnel changes in the Interior Ministry are all initiated by the President, says a source in the Ministry.
Judges
The new President announced a judicial reform as one of his priorities. All policy in this area, including personnel reshuffles, is the brief of Mr Medvedev. Mr Putin does not interfere, says a Government official.
The Higher Arbitration Court, which favours business in its disputes with the authorities, is slowly but surely changing the judiciary for the better, says a source in the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs. This, according to the source, was particularly evident in the case of East Line vs. Rosimushchestvo over Domodedovo Airport. In the previous years the company regularly lost, but when Mr Medvedev became President, the Court decided in East Line's favour and issued a ruling banning courts to seize property under Article 169 of the Civil Code (nationalisation of companies that default on their taxes).
The presidential commission that vets candidates for federal judges is also working more effectively and with a cold head, said a source close to the Court. Earlier, an appointment could take years to go through.
The legally-trained President, whenever he meets with judges, urges them to make the judiciary more open. As a result, Moscow courts of law are now more transparent, claims Anna Usacheva, a Moscow City Court spokeswoman. They have, for example, their own websites.
Yevgeniya Pismennaya and Yulia Fedorinova contributed to the article.
Maxim Glikin; Natalia Kostenko; Alexei Nikolsky