Putin plans shake-up

MOSCOW, Jan 1: Vladimir Putin hinted of cabinet shake-ups on Saturday after plunging with a flourish into his new job as president with a New Year's Eve visit to Russian troops in Chechnya, reports AFP.

"Any mechanism, any collective is in the process of constant perfection," Interfax quoted Putin as saying. "So these (changes in government) are possible."

The comments appeared in character for Putin, who spends little time talking to the press about his government and whose advisers are secretive as well.

But the new Russian president is big on showmanship.

Within hours of becoming Russia's acting president, Putin, 47, flew to the North Caucasus for a morale-boosting visit to troops fighting rebel forces in Chechnya, ringing in the new millennium while flying in a military helicopter.

"We opened the champagne in the helicopter," Putin told Russian television. "The pilot said we did not yet have clearance to land, so we had to turn back, but we opened the bottle by midnight."

As the youthful new acting president was visiting soldiers in the war zone, national television broadcast a pre-recorded New Year's address to the nation which made clear that he was in charge.

"There will not be a minute of power vacuum in the country," Putin said. "I would like to warn that any attempts to exceed the limits of Russian laws, the limits of the constitution of Russia, will be firmly prevented."

Putin's current popularity has been attributed largely to his commitment to bring Chechnya firmly back under Moscow's control, and he declined Saturday to set a deadline for achieving that objective.

"The goal is peace on Chechen soil, prosperity for Chechen people," Putin told troops in Gudermes, Chechnya's second city Russian troops recently recaptured from the rebels.

As heavy fighting continued in the republic, Putin also repeated his stock offer to negotiate with the rebels.

"We are always ready for talks," he said, according to Interfax news agency. If Chechen leaders denounced terrorism, extradite criminals and free hostages, Russia will reciprocate, Putin said.

He told the troops that their mission was critical for the country. "You are restoring our honour and dignity and putting an end to Russia's debacle," Putin told the troops.

As he was choppering around Chechnya through the night, the presidential box reserved for Putin and his wife for a gala event at the Bolshoi Theater sat empty while other members of Russia's elite partied the night away.

In his television address, the steely-eyed former KGB spy, now the clear frontrunner to win presidential elections pencilled in for March 26, also vowed to defend free speech and human rights.

Putin's first official engagement as acting president will come Sunday when he meets party chiefs in the newly-elected State Duma lower house of parliament, aides said.

Three days later, he will attend a special session of the upper house, Federation Council which is to set a date for early presidential elections. Election officials are considering March 26 for the polls.