(REUTERS) MOSCOW – Putin, in a decree issued a day after the government was formed, also confirmed loyal ally Sergei Ivanov as his chief of staff while Nikolai Patrushev stays on as secretary of the presidential Security Council.
One name missing from the list of appointments was that of Igor Sechin, Putin’s energy “tsar” in the previous government, who had been expected to maintain control over the oil industry after Putin returned to the Kremlin.