President Vladimir Putin has made his choice for successor less than four months before the elections. In mid-December, Russia’s four biggest political parties – United Russia, the Agricultural Party, Civil Force, and Just Russia – proposed Dmitry Medvedev as their presidential candidate, a move that Putin readily supported.

In the recent Duma elections, United Russia garnered 64 percent and Just Russia got 7.8 percent, and they will make sure their members in the Duma approve Medvedev’s candidacy. United Russia leader Boris Gryzlov told Putin, “We would like to propose to you the candidate, which all of us are supporting. This candidate is the first vice-premier Medvedev Dmitry Anatolievich.” Putin responded, “As far as Dmitry Anatolievich Medvedev is concerned, I have closely known him for more than 17 years and I am fully supporting his candidacy.”

The soft-spoken Medvedev, a 43-year-old lawyer, is a full four inches shorter than the diminutive Putin, which hardly gives him the look of a natural-born leader. Born on September 14, 1965 in Leningrad, Putin’s hometown, Medvedev graduated from Leningrad State University with a law degree in 1990. From 1990-99 he was a law professor at his old university while also working as an advisor to the Committee for External Relations of the St. Petersburg Mayor’s Office, reporting to – who else? – Chairman Vladimir Putin.

In 1993 Medvedev became the legal affairs director of Ilim Pulp Enterprise, a timber company based in St. Petersburg that is one of Europe’s largest timber producers and the sixth-largest one in the world. In 1998, he was elected to the board of directors of the Bratskiy LPK paper mill. He worked for Ilim Pulp until 1999, moving to Moscow after Putin appointed him deputy head of the president’s staff. But Medvedev’s real power base comes from the energy sector. Since 2002 he has been chairman of the board of Gazprom, the Russian gas monopoly.

There is no question that, with Putin’s support, the March elections are secured for Medvedev. The choice of a liberal-wing candidate was probably a hard blow to the siloviki, headed by Sergey Ivanov, the former minister of defense. (See the March 2007 ET.) What is abundantly clear is that Putin will preserve his power via parliamentary control of Medvedev, who in Russia’s political future will likely prove a mere figurehead.