By Peter Finn
The Washington Post

MOSCOW, Sept. 12 – President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday nominated a longtime associate who is a largely anonymous figure to be the country’s new prime minister, scrambling predictions about who will be the Kremlin-backed candidate in next March’s presidential election.

Viktor Zubkov, 65, was chosen by the president hours after Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov resigned. Zubkov, chairman of the Federal Financial Monitoring Service, a body that investigates money-laundering, must be approved by the lower house of parliament, or Duma, which invariably approves Kremlin initiatives.

Fradkov, a colorless technocrat who loyally followed Kremlin orders, said he was leaving his post so Putin would have a free hand to create a new government in the run-up to the presidential election, as well as parliamentary elections scheduled for December.

Putin, accepting Fradkov’s resignation, sounded a similar note to explain the government reshuffle, and also hinted that Zubkov may be around for a while.

“We all need to think about how to build up the structure of power and governance so they are better suited to the pre-election period,” said Putin in televised remarks from the Kremlin. He added that “we need to prepare the country for the time after the parliamentary election and after the presidential election.”

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