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Thursday, 15 June, 2000, 14:43 GMT 15:43 UK
Putin seeks power over regions
One of Vladimir Putin's first and most ambitious moves, after his inauguration as Russia's president, has been to start re-shaping relations between Moscow and the country's far-flung regions.
After a decade in which central control over the 89 parts of the Russian Federation has gradually weakened, Mr Putin is determined to re-stamp the Kremlin's authority over the length and breadth of the country.
He has divided the country into seven super-districts, and appointed to each an envoy with the task of ensuring "there is a single way of implementing the laws of the Russian Federation".
New state prosecutors are also being appointed to each of the districts, and Mr Putin has said that the leaders of the 89 smaller regions will lose their seats in the upper house of the Russian parliament.
In future changes, the Kremlin is expected to gain the power to sack regional governors - while the seven envoys have already been elevated to the president's powerful Security Council.
Whether these ambitious plans succeed will depend in large part on the regional envoys, most of whom come from the military or law-enforcement agencies.
BBC Monitoring provides the following guide to who they are:
The envoys are General Viktor Cherkesov, General Georgiy Poltavchenko, General Viktor Kazantsev, General (retired) Konstantin Pulikovsky, General Petr Latyshev, Leonid Drachevsky and Sergey Kiriyenko.
He was employed by the Fifth Directorate, charged with combating political dissent, and became "notorious for persecuting dissidents", according to Russia's NTV television.
He became first deputy director of the Federal Security Service (FSB), the KGB's successor, in August 1998, during Putin's tenure as director.
Cherkesov had earlier studied with Putin at Leningrad State University and he remains a "close friend", according to NTV.
He led the KGB's Vyborg department until 1990, and was appointed chief of the Federal Tax Police Service Administration for St Petersburg in 1993.
He owed the position to Putin, who then worked in the city administration, Izvestiya writes.
In 1999 he became presidential representative in the region around St Petersburg. For his new job he will be based in Moscow.
Izvestiya describes him as "a secretive, extremely cautious man and personal friend and protege of Vladimir Putin".
Since 1966 he has served all over the former USSR, including the Caucasus, Central Asia and Siberia, and commanded a regiment in Afghanistan from 1979 to 1987.
Moving to the North Caucasus Military District in 1993, he rose to become its commander in 1997, and in 1999 took command of the forces carrying out operations in Dagestan and Chechnya.
Kazantsev narrowly escaped death in Chechnya in January when his helicopter crashed in the mountainous Vedeno district.
He is remembered, in particular, for issuing an ultimatum to the people of Groznyy to evacuate the city in 48 hours.
After retiring, he entered politics, leading the pro-government Unity party in the Krasnodar region.
Kommersant newspaper commented that Pulikovsky's appointment to the Far East, which has been racked for years by a power struggle in its main city Vladivostok, was such a surprise that no local leaders "could not say anything sensible" about it.
He was involved in security operations in Dagestan in the summer of 1999, and won praise as a negotiator for defusing an ethnic confrontation in another North Caucasus region, Karachai-Cherkessia.
He has also been heavily involved in anti-crime operations in St Petersburg.
In 1998 he entered government as a deputy foreign minister, and in May 1999 became minister for CIS affairs.
Drachevsky is a little-known figure in Siberia, Kommersant writes.
Entering government as a deputy fuel and energy minister in 1997, he became prime minister in April 1998, only to be sacked in August as a result of Russia's economic crash.
Becoming an MP in 1999, he leads the pro-government Union of Right Forces.
Regional leaders such as Tatar President Mintimer Shaimiyev have warmly welcomed Kiriyenko's appointment, saying he is the ideal candidate for the job.
BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.
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