Russia's acting President, Mr Vladimir Putin, is expected to reshuffle the cabinet today, which may give clearer indications of the path he intends to take and of how close his administration will be to that of Mr Boris Yeltsin and his entourage.
Also today the upper house of parliament, the Federation Council, will set a date for the first round of the presidential election, with March 26th remaining the favourite for most pundits.
Mr Putin's removal of Mr Yeltsin's daughter, Ms Tatyana Dyachenko, from her position as image consultant to the president has been widely interpreted as signifying that he has broken with the old regime, but this is by no means certain.
It should be remembered that Mr Putin, for all his undoubted popularity, is still fighting an election campaign. The public dismissal of Mr Yeltsin's daughter is a vote-getter. It creates a strong perception that a clear break has been made with an extremely unpopular regime. It remains to be seen if the sacking is anything more than cosmetic.
Initial reports from the Kremlin indicated that Ms Dyachenko and her close associate, the head of the Kremlin administration, Mr Alexander Voloshin, would be retained. While Mr Yeltsin's daughter has been ousted Mr Voloshin has not, and both he and Ms Dyachenko, it was generally accepted, were open to the influence of the billionaire oligarch Mr Boris Berezovsky.
The official news agency ITAR-TASS reported yesterday that for the moment Mr Putin's prime ministerial duties were being carried out by Mr Nikolai Aksyonenko, Russia's First Deputy Prime Minister. Mr Aksyonenko is seen as Mr Berezovsky's chief representative in the Russian cabinet.
The retention of Mr Aksyonenko in this post would be a much clearer indication of the alignment of forces under Mr Putin than the populist dismissal of Ms Dyachenko. The government spokesman, Mr Dmitri Kozak, who forecast that the reshuffle would take place today said it was likely to be of a minor rather than major nature.
Mr Berezovsky is under investigation in Russia and in Switzerland for alleged misuse of hard currency belonging to the Russian airline Aeroflot. The managing director of the airline, Mr Valery Okulov, is married to Mr Yeltsin's older daughter, Yelena.
At the weekend the US newsmagazine Newsweek reported that 12 bank accounts containing $15 million, which were frozen by the Swiss authorities earlier this year, are now suspected of being linked to Mr Yeltsin. It is understood that the accounts are not in Mr Yeltsin's name but are held by offshore companies.
No allegations of financial corruption have been levelled against Mr Putin. He has, however, been embroiled in Kremlin intrigue. A little over a month ago he just survived moves to oust him as prime minister and, as yet, he has not managed to rid the power structures of those who tried to dump him.
In Russian politics the use of Kompromat (compromising material), whether real or invented, is extremely common, and if the presidential campaign is to be anything as dirty as the recent parliamentary election then we can expect mud to be thrown in Mr Putin's direction.
Mr Putin's current popularity has been built on perceived Russian successes in the Chechen war. As federal troops quickly gained control of the plains of northern Chechnya he acquired an aura almost of invincibility in comparison to the bumbling inefficiency of Mr Yeltsin.
Now, however, the Russian successes appear to have halted, at least temporarily. Optimistic official reports particularly on the two main pro-government TV channels continue to be made.
The NTV channel, seen mainly in the major population centres of European Russia, portrays a campaign which is losing the initiative. Chechen sources claimed yesterday that they took three villages from the Russians but had retreated to one of them to consolidate their forces.