Ahead of presidential elections scheduled for March next year, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov and opposition firebrand Alexei Navalny are among President Vladimir Putin’s potential successors, according to a new ranking produced by a Russian think-tank.
Published by the independent Peterburgskaya Politika NGO, the list casts current Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev as the most likely candidate to fill Putin’s shoes, with 21 out of 25 possible points.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin came in second place, followed by the Tula governor Alexei Dyumin.
Other top officials to make the cut included the first deputy head of the Presidential Administration Sergei Kiriyenko, the State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin and the Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. Igor Sechin, the head of oil giant Rosneft, also made the top ten.
The list, which consisted of 20 names, also includes Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, who placed 13th and opposition leader Alexei Navalny who came in 18th place.
The candidates were scored out of five points across five criteria, including their media presence, general activeness, whether political and academic elites perceived them as successors, their conflicts and weakness, the Moscow Times reported.
The NGO explained the latter category saying that control over “clans or resources” could make a candidate more powerful, but would “create an imbalance in the relationship with other political actors."
