Russian Acting President Vladimir Putin said on January 10 that the cabinet reshuffles made earlier in the day were temporary and linked to the situation in the run-up to the presidential elections in March.

He told reporters in his Kremlin office that the main goal of the shake-up was to come up with a reliable coordinator in government affairs. Finance Minister Mikhail Kasyanov, who was promoted to the cabinet's only first deputy prime minister, was just such a coordinator, Putin said.

However, Putin's press secretary Mikhail Kozhukhov said it was still premature to talk about Mikhail Kasyanov's being appointed prime minister soon.

He said Putin, appointed acting president following Boris Yeltsin's abrupt resignation on December 31, has recently been spending much time outside the government building, which is why he would like a man he completely trusts "to hold the fort."

The appointment of a financial and economic expert as first deputy prime minister is testimony to how much attention Putin is attaching to that sphere, Kozhukhov said.

Putin has repeatedly talked about the necessity to reshuffle the government and the executive branch and to bring new ideas there. Kasyanov now has a chance to transform these plans into practice, the Interfax news agency quoted the spokesman as saying.

Kozhukhov said Putin's decision to refrain from bigger reshuffles and opt for a new arrangement of "roles" was a reflection of Putin's maturity in personnel affairs.

In the government shake-up Monday, Putin also demoted two former deputy prime ministers. Nikolai Aksyonenko, who used to be first deputy prime minister and railway minister, kept only the ministerial post. The other first deputy prime minister, Viktor Khristenko, was made deputy prime minister.

Sergei Shoigu, originally minister for civil defense and emergency situations, was promoted to the post of deputy prime minister. Shoigu's pro-government Unity Party scored a surprising victory in the December 19 parliamentary elections.

In addition, Putin also dismissed Kremlin Property Chief Pavel Borodin, saying he would be given another job. There are reports that Borodin would be assigned the post of state secretary of the Russia-Belarus Union.

Borodin has been widely accused of involvement in high-level corruption scandals, but both the Kremlin and Borodin himself had denied corruption charges.