Medvedev: cautious lawyer bound for the Kremlin

By Guy Faulconbridge

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Dmitry Medvedev is President Vladimir Putin's most trusted ally but does the former corporate lawyer have the right stuff to rule the Kremlin?

Putin has used his huge popularity to ensure Medvedev victory in Sunday's presidential election and his elevation in May to the Kremlin's top job.

Former colleagues describe the 42-year-old as a brilliant lawyer who dislikes risk and is devoted to Putin, qualities which will count for much if, as expected, he appoints his former boss prime minister.

But some have questioned whether Medvedev has the ruthless political instincts needed to rule the Kremlin's clans and the world's biggest country.

His presidency -- at least at first -- is likely to be defined by his relationship with his mentor, who says he will serve as prime minister under a President Medvedev.

"I think he is a well-prepared, educated and modern. He has good experience as a lawyer, he's bright, but there is one drawback, he didn't work at the federal level long enough," the last Soviet president, Mikhail Gorbachev, said as he cast his ballot.

Medvedev, who admits he seems "buttoned-up" in public, will become Russia's youngest leader since the last emperor, Tsar Nikolai II, who the former corporate lawyer says he admires.

"Dima is clever, clever enough to be president and he is tough, tough enough to be president," one former colleague from the 1990s told Reuters on condition his name was not published.

"But you have to have a sense, an emotional intelligence, a feeling for decisions in the Kremlin - Putin has it, (Former President Boris) Yeltsin definitely had it - does Dima? I don't know. We shall see," the former colleague said.

Medvedev, whose height is several centimeters shorter than Putin's 170 cm (about 5 feet 7 inches), may have to learn from his patron how to project himself at public events, some say.

But as board chairman of the gas giant Gazprom, Medvedev showed a tougher side than is usually presented by the Kremlin's image makers, who have tried to show Medvedev as a softer, more friendly leader than the former KGB spy, Putin.

Under his tenure at Gazprom, the state export monopoly cut gas supplies to Ukraine and expanded its clout inside Russia with a spending spree on acquisitions.

There is no evidence Medvedev has worked for the state security services, who have formed the core of Putin's inner circle of advisers in the Kremlin.

FUTURE PRESIDENT?

Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev, born into a family of teachers, is remembered as a bookish child.