Mr. Putin, 58, has made many shifts since 1999, when, after a career in the shadows of Soviet intelligence agencies, he was selected to succeed Boris N. Yeltsin as Russia’s president. His transformations trace the fortunes of Russia itself, which rode the oil boom to become a defiant presence on the world stage and was thrust into deep uncertainty by the 2008 collapse of financial markets.

Putin 2.0, as some people are calling him, is unlikely to diverge drastically from the path set by President Dmitri A. Medvedev, who succeeded him in 2008 and sought to improve the business climate and reassure foreign investors. But Mr. Putin will most likely find it difficult to embrace reforms that devolve power away from the Kremlin, like the establishment of an independent judiciary, said Marat Guelman, who was a political operative and ally of Mr. Putin’s in the early 2000s.

“It’s not simple, because he will have to overcome what he did himself,” said Mr. Guelman, who now owns an art gallery in Moscow. “It is difficult to fight with yourself. It is a different Putin, but nevertheless it is the same. His type of management is vertical. That is the only way he knows how to manage. To manage something more complex, to take into account conflicting opinions — he never learned how to do it.”

At the outset of the “tandem” government three years ago, Mr. Medvedev made modernization his political brand, while Mr. Putin stood for stability. But Mr. Putin seems to be adjusting his message. On Monday, in his first appearance as the chosen presidential candidate, Mr. Putin ordered federal bodies to switch from paper to electronic documentation — a curious order from a man who, aides say, remains reluctant to use the Internet.

On Friday, the day before the announcement that he would be a candidate for president, Mr. Putin said leaders needed to listen to criticisms from human rights organizations. The remark was a little grudging, as he noted that rights campaigners “concern themselves with problems which do not affect a person’s everyday life,” in contrast to first-tier rights like salaries. But it was, at least, softer than his 2007 statement that they “scavenge like jackals at foreign embassies.”