MOSCOW - Reuters
Incoming Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announced his cabinet line-up yesterday

re-appointing most aaa ministers and taking powerful figures from his previous Kremlin team with him to his new post.
President Dmitry Medvedev

who succeeded Putin as president last Wednesday

approved the names quickly at a formal meeting. Putin re-appointed Alexei Kudrin

seen by markets as a guarantor of Russia's free-market policies

as Finance Minister. Sergei Lavrov

the public face of Moscow's assertive foreign policy

stayed as Foreign Minister. Former prime minister and ex-collective farm boss Viktor Zubkov stayed in the cabinet as one of two first deputy prime ministers. The other is Igor Shuvalov

who was Putin's top economic policy aide at the Kremlin.
Among the few major changes were the removal of Telecom's Minister Leonid Reiman

the splitting of the Industries and Energy Ministry into two separate entities and the creation of a new ministry for sport and tourism and another for ecology.