Russian President Vladimir Putin stuck to his habit of choosing virtually unknown technocrats as prime minister by nominating Viktor Zubkov.
With his choice of the 65-year-old, who is head of the Federal Financial Monitoring Service, Mr Putin confounded expectations the job would go to a heavyweight candidate who would use it as a stepping-stone to becoming president in 2008.
Instead, Mr Putin kept everyone guessing about whom he wanted to be his successor by giving the job to a man regarded by most analysts as a transitional figure.
In common with many politicians who have risen to the top of Russian officialdom under Mr Putin, Mr Zubkov worked alongside the future president in St Petersburg's City Hall in the 1990s.
Mr Zubkov was nominated to replace Mikhail Fradkov, who stepped down after more than three years as prime minister earlier today.
As head of the Financial Monitoring Service from 2001, Mr Zubkov played a major role in combating money-laundering - a priority for President Putin who waged a campaign against 'oligarchs' who made fortunes while flouting the law.
When Mr Fradkov was nominated, he too was almost unknown and working as Russia's envoy to the European Union in Brussels.
Mr Zubkov was born on 15 September 1941 in the village of Arbat in the Urals mountains. His first job was as a fitter in a factory.
He went on to qualify as an economist specialising in agriculture and worked on state farms in the Leningrad region surrounding St Petersburg for 18 years.
He joined the city administration in 1985, serving for a time in the foreign economic department where Mr Putin worked. From 1993 until 2001 he was a senior official in the tax service, leaving to head the financial monitoring service in 2001.
