Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) talks with Head of the Federal Taxation Service Mikhail Mishustin during their meeting in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia on September 8, 2014. File photo: Kremlin

Russian President Vladimir Putin approved a new government on Tuesday which he described as a break with the past, bringing in some fresh faces but retaining many senior ministers.

The new government included a new economy minister and a new first deputy prime minister, but the finance, foreign, defense, energy and agriculture ministers all kept their jobs.

The new team was formed less than a week after Putin unveiled a sweeping shake-up of the political system, which led to the resignation of his ally Dmitry Medvedev as prime minister along with the entire government.

Putin went on to pick 53-year-old former tax chief Mikhail Mishustin, who has almost no political profile, as his new prime minister.

Putin's wider shake-up, which envisages changing the constitution, is widely seen as preparing the ground for 2024, when Putin, now 67, is obliged to leave the presidency after occupying the Kremlin or the prime minister's job continuously since 1999.

Tuesday's new appointments could be intended to reboot the government's  image and shift attention to Putin's drive to lift falling real incomes and drive ahead with big national infrastructure projects which he hopes will catapult his country into a new economic league.

"The most important task is to increase the welfare of our citizens and strengthen our statehood and the position of our country in the world. All these are absolutely attainable goals," Putin told the new government.

"We have achieved a very balanced government. We have enough people who worked in the previous government, as well as a major renewal."

Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, Energy Minister Alexander Novak, Agriculture Minister Dmitry Patrushev, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov all kept their jobs.

Putin named Andrei Belousov, his economy advisor since 2013, as first deputy prime minister, replacing Anton Siluanov who had held the role since May 2018.

Putin approved 40-year-old Maxim Reshetnikov, a former regional governor, as the new economy minister, replacing Maxim Oreshkin who spent just over three years in the role. 

Reshetnikov previously worked in the Moscow mayor's office. He also named Maksut Shadaev, until now a vice president of state telecoms operator Rostelecom, to be min­ister of telecommunications.