Like watching dogs fighting under a car-pet, was how Churchill described Russian politics. On November 14th the carpet stirred, when President Vladimir Putin announced that Dmitry Medvedev, head of the presidential administration since 2003, was to become first deputy prime minister. Mr Medvedev's old job went to Sergei Sob-yanin, previously governor of the oil-producing Tyumen region in Siberia. Sergei Ivanov, Russia's defence minister, keeps his job but will also become a deputy prime minister (making three altogether). Mr Putin also reshuffled his envoys to the country's seven federal districts (one of whom, Sergei Kiriyenko, a former prime minister, was made head of Russia's atomic-energy agency).
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