Media Talk – Russia after the Elections: the Power Behind the Throne

With Vladimir Putin due to leave his post after the Russian presidential elections in May, our panel discusses how Russia will be run and who will run it.

Talk of Putin’s imminent departure and his probable new role as the country’s prime minister has been dominating Russian politics for months.

With the elections approaching and Putin’s chosen successor, Dmitry Medvedev, almost certain to become the next president, a new line of command looks set to take over in the Kremlin. Or does it?

Oksana Antonenko – Senior Fellow at IISS, specialising in Russian politics.

David Hearst – The Guardian’s foreign leader writer and former Moscow correspondent.

Alan Philps – former foreign editor and Russia correspondent for the Daily Telegraph. Philps was also a Reuters correspondent in Russia in 1979-1980 before being expelled from the country in 1985.

Prof Robert Service – Professor of Russia History, St Antony’s College, Oxford University. Author of A History of Modern Russia: From Nicholas II to Vladimir Putin.

Moderated by Alan Cowell – New York Times correspondent and author of a forthcoming book on the Litvinenko case.