Russia’s President Vladimir Putin will hand over real power to his successor Dmitry Medvedev – but will take his time about it, according to the head of a new Kremlin-backed think tank.

Igor Yurgens, former executive secretary of Russia’s big business lobby group and now head of the Institute of Contemporary Development, said that while Mr Putin would initially remain the “number one”, he genuinely wanted to make way for Mr Medvedev, perhaps over four years.