Mikhail Mishutin, the new and obscure Prime Minister of Russia

In choosing Mikhail Mishustin as prime minister on Wednesday 15, the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin , dismissed the possibility of having an internal rival in the government and made clear his view on the emptied post that, in 2024, he himself should take over - the attempt to empower his future position through constitutional reform prompted the resignation of now ex-ally Dmitri Medvedev. Bureaucrat Mishustin is a stranger in Russian politics, he never took an elective office and won an English page on Wikipedia only after his appointment.

Mishustin, 53, holds a doctorate in economics from Moscow State Technological University, better known as Stankin. He joined the public service in 1998, on the staff of the Ministry of Taxation as an assistant to Boris Fedorov, head of the Federal Tax Service . He already led this area in 2010, when he declared a war against tax evaders. Under his management, Russia collected 64% more taxes between 2014 and 2018.

His rise on Wednesday came after the then prime minister, Dmitri  Medvedev , the same one who has doubled with Putin in the Russian presidency since 2008, resigns along with the entire cabinet. Medvedev had reacted to Putin's announcement in favor of a constitutional reform to give more power to Parliament and, consequently, to the position of prime minister. It did not take long for Putin to appoint his ally's successor, appeased with a new post on the Russian Security Council.

With no political past, Mishutin is a bureaucrat who works without drawing the attention of the general public. His choice resonated with opponents as a warning about the possibility of Putin preparing to remain in power after 2024. The American newspaper The New York Times, former Prime Minister and government opponent Mikhail Kasyanov said that Putin gave “a clear answer ”to that questioning. "He will be president forever," he said.

The Foreign Policy portal assesses Mishustin as a discrete choice without the capacity to act as a political articulator in Moscow, which makes a possible claim to challenge Putin unlikely.