This article is more than 7 months old

This article is more than 7 months old

Russian opposition figures have raised questions about how Vladimir Putin’s surprise choice for new prime minister has acquired millions of dollars in property, as the State Duma hurriedly confirmed Russia’s first new premier since 2012.

The Russian president’s allies have rushed to support Mikhail Mishustin, the former head of Russia’s tax service, who claimed to have been stunned and “not [to have] slept all night” after Putin named him as the replacement for Dmitry Medvedev.

Supporters have praised Mishustin’s credentials as a technocrat and a “self-made man”. State television also boasted of Mishustin’s accomplishments in modernising Russia’s tax collection system, calling it “the best system in the world”.

Mishustin was confirmed by parliament on Thursday. No MPs in the State Duma voted against his candidacy, although Communist lawmakers abstained from the vote.

Speaking before parliament, Mishustin said he wanted to “restore trust” with businesses, and he focused on social concerns, saying “people should already now be feeling real changes for the better”.

Timeline Putin's hold over power in Russia Show Hide Acting prime minister Boris Yeltsin sacks his cabinet and appoints Putin, a political neophyte who headed the main successor to the KGB, as his acting prime minister and heir apparent. Acting president Yeltsin stuns Russia and the world by using his traditional new year message to announce his resignation and hand his sweeping powers, including the nuclear suitcase, to Putin. President (first term) Putin wins a surprisingly narrow majority in his first presidential election, taking 53% of the vote and avoiding a second round run-off. President (second term) Putin consolidates his centralised control of power by cruising to a second term as president with 71% of the vote, having limited press access to his opponents and harassing their campaigns. Prime minister Putin is prevented by the constitution from running for a third term as president. The First deputy prime minister Dmitry Medvedev is elected in his stead. One of his earliest moves is to appoint Putin as prime minister, leaving little doubt that the two men plan, at the very least, to run Russia in tandem. President (third term) Amid widespread allegations of vote-rigging, Putin returns to the role of president, taking 63.6%. Medvedev becomes his prime minister. "Putin has named himself the emperor of Russia for the next 12 years," says protest leader Alexei Navalny. President (fourth term) Putin is re-elected until 2024 with 77% of the vote, amid high tensions between London and Moscow over the Salisbury nerve agent attack. Opposition activists highlight a number of cases of vote-rigging and statistical anomalies. Russia holds a yes/no referendum on various topics including a proposal to amend the constitution to allow Putin to seek another two terms in the Kremlin. The resolution passes, potentially allowing him to rule as president until 2036.

Mishustin’s appointment is part of a sweeping reorganisation of the government that will help enable Putin to maintain power after his expected exit from the presidency in 2024 under term limits. Analysts said Mishustin may play a role as a “caretaker” figure but was unlikely to be Putin’s long-term successor.

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Opponents of Putin have begun digging into Mishustin’s record. Shortly after his nomination, the investigative site Proekt reported, state property registers began hiding Mishustin’s name in connection with a house in Moscow’s fashionable Rublyovka suburb as well an apartment in central Moscow. Proekt estimated the value of the properties at nearly $10m (£7.6m). The owner is now listed as the Russian government, common for properties denoted as secret.

Researchers for Alexei Navalny, the opposition politician and anti-corruption researcher, noted that Mishustin’s wife had earned nearly 790m rubles (nearly £10m) in the past nine years, according to government declarations. Little was known about her business, the investigative group said.

“Mishustin has been a ‘servant of the people’ for 20 of the past 22 years,” Navalny wrote in the investigation. “So why is he so damn rich?”

Corruption scandals hounded Medvedev in recent years, helping to spark protests by young Muscovites in 2017. The Kremlin hopes that Mishustin’s record as a technocrat will protect him from similar attacks. Strict laws limit the official earnings of Russian government officials, but less so their families.

Mishustin served as the head of the Russian investment company UFG from 2008-10 and as the laboratory head for a non-profit in the early 1990s. He first joined the tax service in 1998 and was appointed its head in 2010.

Allies of Putin, including those considered his potential successor, also fell in behind Mishustin. He “knows how to balance the interest of both business and the state”, said Alexei Kudrin, a former finance minister seen as a liberal ally of Putin.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Vedomosti reported that Mikhail Mishustin has penned several songs for Grigor Leps, a popular singer. Photograph: Vyacheslav Prokofyev/TASS

“The school of life has been tough for this man, and he is capable of big missions,” said Vyacheslav Volodin, the hard-nosed chairman of Russia’s parliament, adding that Mishustin was a “self-made man”.

“I know him as an extremely energetic, responsible, enthusiastic person,” said Sergei Sobyanin, the Moscow mayor, who had himself also been suggested as a potential successor.

Analysts said that Mishustin was likely to play a technical role that would capitalise on his experience from remaking the country’s tax system.

“Mishustin was on no one’s radar,” wrote Andrei Kolesnikov of the Moscow Carnegie Center thinktank. “Now, with his help, Putin is going to build a country that resembles the Federal Tax Service: with reports and inspections, security assets, and where necessary, the digitalisation of the entire country.”

Mishustin’s hobbies have brought him into elite circles. He is an avid hockey player who has played alongside Putin and other senior officials in his Night Hockey League. He also sits on the supervisory council of the CSKA hockey league alongside Rosneft head Igor Sechin.

He has also been revealed to have a creative side. Vedomosti, the Russian business newspaper, reported on Thursday that Mishustin was a pianist and songwriter who had penned several songs for Grigory Leps, a Russian singer-songwriter who regularly appears on state television.