Deputy PM is new possible to follow Russia's Putin

MOSCOW, July 30 (Reuters) A little known technocrat became a serious contender to succeed Russian President Vladimir Putin today after newspapers said he had been made boss of a state shipbuilding conglomerate with a 12 billion dollars order book.

Up to now, Dmitry Medvedev and Sergei Ivanov, both first deputy prime ministers, have been seen as front-runners in the race to succeed Putin when he steps down as president next year.

But Putin himself, whose blessing is essential for any candidate to be elected, has refused to disclose his preferences and a Putin aide added to the mystery last month by saying there could be a surprise candidate.

Izvestia and Kommersant dailies said Sergei Naryshkin, 52, a deputy prime minister and a virtually unknown technocrat, was to be appointed chairman of the Unified Shipbuilding Corporation.

The corporation, which will have sway over all civilian and military shipbuilding apart from production of nuclear submarines, is being formed after a Putin decree in March consolidating assets in the sector into a single company.

While there has been no official announcement about who will head the corporation, its boss will clearly have a powerful industrial powerbase that will give him political weight to rival other players in the Kremlin.

''This is a definite widening of influence for Naryshkin,'' Alexei Mukhin, head of the think-tank Centre of Political Information, said.

''He is expanding his political and, importantly, his economic influence and thus becoming one of the likely candidates for the post of president,'' Mukhin said.

Investors are hungry for any hints about who Putin will endorse to replace him ahead of the March 2008 presidential election.

Naryshkin was promoted by Putin to deputy prime minister in a February reshuffle, sparking speculation that he was being groomed for the presidency. In June, Putin gave him additional duties for developing cooperation between formal Soviet states.

Putin's second term in office will end in 2008 and he is expected to use his popularity to anoint a successor who, with the Kremlin's resources, would be almost certain to win election.

INNER RANKS Analysts say Naryshkin, railways chief Vladimir Yakunin, the head of the state arms exporter Sergei Chemezov and Putin's chief-of-staff Sergei Sobyanin, are possible candidates.

''Putin is head of his own inner ranks... Sergei Ivanov, Dmitry Medvedev and now Naryshkin are also there along with Yakunin and Chemezov,'' Mukhin said. ''The new president of Russia will probably be elected from that inner rank.'' Medvedev is chairman of gas giant Gazprom, while Ivanov oversees weapons orders and aviation.

Naryshkin, like Putin a native of St. Petersburg, is also head of the government apparatus. He worked in the 1980s in the economic attache's department of the Soviet embassy in Belgium.

Anyone posted abroad at the time was carefully vetted for their political reliability.

Analysts say the rationale for Putin to endorse a lower-profile candidate to replace him is that it would be easier for him to influence Kremlin policies, even after he has left office.

REUTERS JT KP2120