MOSCOW, Nov. 14 (Xinhuanet) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin onFriday appointed Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov and presidential chief of staff Dmitry Medvedev as deputy prime ministers in a cabinet reshuffle.

    Sergei Sobyanin, former governor of the oil-rich Tyumen region,replaced Medvedev as presidential chief of staff. Ivanov will retain his post as defense minister.

    "I accepted the prime minister's suggestion that Dmitry Medvedev goes to work in the government as first deputy prime minister," Putin was quoted as saying at a cabinet meeting by the Itar-Tass news agency.

    Medvedev had been tapped as deputy head of a newly established council on implementing priority national projects.

    In other changes, Alexander Konovalov, who has served as a prosecutor in Bashkortostan, was appointed presidential envoy to the Volga federal district and Kamil Iskhakov, a city official of Kazan, the capital of Tatarstan, was named presidential envoy to the Far East. Enditem