MOSCOW (NY Times) -- Ending months of speculation, President Vladimir V. Putin said Monday that he would support one of his closest confidants, Dmitri A. Medvedev, a low-key former law professor with no background in the security services, to be the next Russian president.Skip to next paragraph

Mr. Putin’s announcement makes Mr. Medvedev, 42, who is now a first deputy prime minister, the overwhelming favorite to win the presidency in elections next March, when Mr. Putin is due to step down.
But Mr. Putin, who is barred by the Constitution from running for a third consecutive term, gave no indication in his remarks Monday about his own future, though he has repeatedly said that he intends to wield significant influence over Russia after he relinquishes the presidency.
Unlike Mr. Putin and many top officials in the Kremlin, Mr. Medvedev appears to have no background in the K.G.B., or its successor, the F.S.B., or other security agencies. A lawyer, Mr. Medvedev was first hired by Mr. Putin when Mr. Putin was a senior aide in the city government of St. Petersburg in the 1990’s.
He has a reputation as a technocrat with a strong grasp of economics, and is given to making scholarly allusions to Latin legal terms. Mr. Putin had recently put him in charge of spending some of the country’s large budget surplus, amassed because of the high price of oil, on improvements to housing, health care, education and other social services.
Mr. Medvedev had long been one of the most likely choices to succeed Mr. Putin, along with another first deputy prime minister, Sergei B. Ivanov, who is considered more hawkish and is a veteran of the F.S.B.
Since taking office in 2000, Mr. Putin has seeded the government with many senior officials who, like Mr. Putin himself and Mr. Ivanov, once served in the security services.
The decision by Mr. Putin to endorse Mr. Medvedev over Mr. Ivanov or other candidates from the security services stirred speculation in political circles that Mr. Putin had decided on a successor who could be more easily controlled from behind the scenes.
Still, while Mr. Medvedev is considered a moderate who may have a more pro-Western bent, little is actually known about how he would govern as president. He has never run for any office and despite the publicity during the last year about his ambitions, had never publicly declared an interest in the office, clearly in deference to Mr. Putin.
While Mr. Medvedev and Mr. Putin have different backgrounds, they are similar in one respect: both were plucked from relative obscurity and put in positions of power even though they had never before been involved in electoral politics. Mr. Putin was installed as prime minister by President Boris N. Yeltsin after serving in the F.S.B.
Mr. Medvedev is regularly shown on state-controlled television, but is not known for having a politician’s skill at connecting with large audiences. He is considered to be less awkward in more informal settings and is known for cracking jokes and bantering with journalists.
He made no public comments Monday, beyond a terse acceptance of Mr. Putin’s endorsement at a meeting of political parties allied with the Kremlin that was shown on Russian television. Mr. Putin said at the meeting that under Mr. Medvedev, Russia would continue to follow the course set by Mr. Putin over the last eight years.
“I’ve been very close to him for more than 17 years and fully and completely support this candidacy,” Mr. Putin said.
The speaker of Parliament, Boris Gryzlov, a Putin ally, said Mr. Medvedev was being endorsed in part because of his stewardship of important social programs. “We think that this is the most socially oriented candidate, the man who performed very well in tackling national projects, the demographic program,” Mr. Gryzlov said.
While opposition leaders have announced their intention to run for president, they would appear to have little chance of defeating Mr. Medvedev.
Mr. Putin is popular in Russia, and he has been willing to use the full power of the Kremlin to win elections for his party, United Russia, and its candidates. United Russia secured a landslide in parliamentary elections earlier this month.
Born in St. Petersburg, Mr. Medvedev taught law at St. Petersburg State University while working as an aide in the city government. He served as campaign manager for Mr. Putin’s successful presidential run in 2000, and then as Mr. Putin’s presidential chief of staff before Mr. Putin appointed him first deputy prime minister. He also serves as chairman of Gazprom, the Russian gas monopoly.