Few people would recognise Vyacheslav Volodin on the streets of Moscow but the man who is the brains behind Vladimir Putin's presidential election campaign would have it no other way.
The square-faced, 48-year-old bureaucrat has quietly risen through the ranks to become the grey cardinal plotting the prime minister's return to the presidency in an election on March 4.
Brought into the Kremlin on December 27 in response to the biggest opposition protests of Putin's 12-year rule, he is behind a campaign that portrays the former KGB spy as a man of the people and a guarantor of stability.
At first meeting, Volodin gives the impression of being a straightforward man from the provinces with simple tastes and manners. He likes to crack jokes with reporters and sometimes has a mischievous glint in his eye.
But colleagues say the casual camaraderie hides a driving ambition and ruthless streak that has helped him see off rivals on his way to the top. Those who work or have worked with him seemed scared of saying too much for fear of retribution.
"I cannot say what I would like to say about him. What I can say is of no use to you," said a senior official in United Russia with good knowledge of Volodin.
Volodin did not respond to a request for an interview and most colleagues or former colleagues who agreed to discuss his career did so on the condition they were not identified.
In the shadows Volodin has worked his way up from a political aide in the Saratov region in southern Russia in the 1990s, through the ranks of Putin's United Russia party to roles in the government and now the Kremlin.
He has mostly kept in the shadows, especially since he became first deputy chief of staff in the presidential administration in a reshuffle following the start of mass protests over alleged fraud in a December 4 parliamentary election.
Volodin's challenge is to ensure Putin wins 50% of the votes on March 4 to avoid a second-round runoff, which could undermine his authority. Some political experts say he is a good choice because he is the only person in Putin's inner circle with deep experience of the election battles of the 1990s, when competition was fierce and campaigning was dominated by mudslinging and muck-raking.
"Volodin went through the rough school of alternative elections in the 1990s. This experience has enabled him to push Putin's campaign in a more aggressive direction," wrote Alexei Venediktov, editor-in-chief of Ekho Moskvy, a liberal radio station.
Others say Volodin - whose personal fortune was estimated at $95 million by a Russian magazine after he made money on shares in margarine factories - may not have what it takes. "Volodin is a clever executor, but he cannot come up with a political project of his own. It is not his strength. He can only manage somebody else's project," said Gleb Pavlovsky, a former Kremlin adviser who fell out of favour last year.
Eminence grise
What is not in doubt is that Volodin has assumed the mantle of "eminence grise" as first deputy chief of staff in the Kremlin since replacing Vladislav Surkov, the architect of the closely managed political system forged in Putin's presidency.
Volodin has relied little so far on modern tools such as videoclips and the Internet in a campaign which mostly features Putin holding televised meetings with core supporters such as factory workers, football fans and sportsmen.
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