By Steve Rosenberg BBC correspondent in Moscow

For two weeks Vladimir Putin kept his country guessing: who would he appoint to his new cabinet?

Most heads of state change their government after elections

Would the new Russian government be reformist, liberal, or would it give way to hardliners, mistrustful of the West?

The choice of a new Prime Minister, Mikhail Fradkov, failed to answer the question.

But this reshuffle has given clues about the direction in which Mr Putin intends to take Russia.

The Kremlin leader has reappointed key reformers - liberal economists like Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, Minister of Economic Development German Gref, and Viktor Khristenko, now energy minister.

People with whom the West is used to doing business.

Russia's new foreign minister, too, is also well known abroad.

For the last 10 years, Sergei Lavrov has been Russia's ambassador to the United Nations.

Red tape

The new cabinet is much slimmer than before.

It has been slashed from 30 ministers to just 17, part of the Putin plan to cut bureaucracy and speed up reform.

A close aide of the president, Dmitry Kozak, has been appointed chief of the government administration, to make sure the cabinet toes the Kremlin line.

Most heads of state, of course, usually wait until after an election before they change their government.