It was supposed to be the stitch-up to end all stitch-ups. On Saturday Vladimir Putin, Russian prime minister, and Dmitry Medvedev, president since 2008, announced in front of a loudly cheering audience of the ruling United Russia party that they were once more switching jobs next year.

“I want to say directly: an agreement over what to do in the future was reached between us several years ago,” Mr Putin told the crowd, while Mr Medvedev too said the pact had been agreed back in 2007 when he was prime minister and Mr Putin backed him as his successor for the presidency. “We actually discussed this variant of events while we were first forming our comradely alliance,” proclaimed Mr Medvedev.

It was the epitome of politics by conspiracy perfected by Mr Putin in over a decade in power, intended both to end three and a half years of intrigue that had gripped Russia about Mr Putin’s political plans and to demonstrate that the omnipotent Kremlin political machine was impervious to rivalry, jealousy, competition and scandal.