Or is Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev a visionary reformer with a mind of his own, slowly but surely sidelining his mentor, Prime Minister and former president Vladimir Putin?

The last days in Russia have reignited the debate about the balance of power within the country's ruling duumvirate, sending Kremlin-watchers hurrying to confirm or reassess opinions over who runs the country.

Medvedev in a state-of-the-nation address on Nov. 12 outlined his blueprint for modernizing the Russian economy, blasting the state corporations and dependence on oil exports that had ballooned in the Putin presidency.

Seated in the front row, the poker-faced prime minister barely blinked but several commentators saw Medvedev's words as an attack on the "Putin system" that has ruled Russia over the last decade.

On Saturday the roles were reversed, with Medvedev listening this time as Putin gave strikingly forthcoming backing to his modernization plan and showing, in public at least, that the two men were in perfect lockstep.

"I am sure that this call reflects the mood of all of Russian society," Putin said in an hour-long speech to the annual congress of the ruling United Russia party in Saint Petersburg.

Under the Soviet Union, Kremlinology was a favourite sport amongst observers who scrambled to guess what was really going on behind the 10m walls of the Moscow Kremlin

Such uncertainty did no harm to outside preconceptions about the mysteries of Russia, summed up by Winston Churchill's famous phrase that the country "is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma."

The ascendancy of Putin appeared to bring a new era of simplicity to Russia-watching, with few doubting who was really in charge of Russia.

But particularly after Medvedev's assertive state-of-the-nation address, voices are multiplying that complicate this interpretation by implying the president's influence is on the rise.

This week Medvedev fired the long serving Kremlin media advisor Mikhail Lesin, seen as a Putin ally, for abuse of office in what Russian newspapers saw as his biggest change in the administration yet.

The move sparked a flurry of interest, not least in the Moskovskii Komsomolets daily, a paper known for its close ties to the Medvedev team that had energetically promoted his standing over the last months.

"What's important is that Medvedev here showed himself to be the sole leader of the Kremlin. He sacked an important official without consulting Putin," wrote the paper.

"Will Lesin be the last to go? If not, then this week could go down in history as the moment when the balance of power in Russia's ruling tandem started to change," it added.