Shortly after the formalities of Sunday's inauguration ceremony in the Kremlin, the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, Alexi II, gave President Putin two icons. One of them, that of St Nicholas the Miracle Worker, seemed particularly appropriate considering the tasks facing Mr Putin after almost a decade of chaos under the previous administration.

St Nicholas the Miracle Worker has been especially popular over the centuries in Russia. Arguably, the search for miracles has, in Russian history, predominated over the hard slog involved in solving problems by conventional means.

The haemophilia of Tsarevich Alexei caused his mother to resort to the dark Grigory Rasputin. The gross inequality of the tsarist regime led to a system one of whose main beliefs was that capitalism contained within itself the seeds of its own imminent destruction. It has not quite worked out like that.

In more recent years, a significant proportion of the electorate became involved in miracle-seeking. In 1993 they turned their attention to the madcap nostrums of Vladimir Zhirinovsky and gave his Liberal Democratic Party a large bloc of seats in the state Duma.

In December last year a completely new political party - called Unity but with no political or economic programme - emerged from the elections with the largest representation in the Duma, after the ever-present Communist Party of the Russian Federation.

Vladimir Putin now finds himself with metaphorical miracles to work. He declared in his inauguration speech that his aim was to make "a free, prosperous, rich, strong and civilised country". This goal, while admirable in itself, may take a long time to achieve unless, of course, Mr Putin accepts some of his advisers' ideas for a miraculous short-cut to success.

There are very strong contradictions between Mr Putin's stated beliefs and those of some of his advisers. As a former KGB agent, the President regards a strong state as being necessary for stability. The business newspaper Kommersant claims to possess a document in which a plan to establish an authoritarian regime has been put forward by the Kremlin.

In the country retreat of Vatutinki outside Moscow, different views prevail. Locked away in this rustic setting is a think-tank that is preparing an economic programme for the President. Its chairman, Mr Gherman Gref, told investors Russia should be run like a business with the state stripped of many of its functions.

The most outspoken member of the team, Mr Andrei Illarionov, has two heroes. One is the Russian-born American cult novelist Ayn Rand who turned Judaeo-Christian values on their head and declared selfishness good and altruism evil. If everyone acts out of self-interest, the theory goes, the whole community will benefit.

Unfortunately, when it rains on Fridays and self-interested motorists take to the streets instead of waiting in the wet for a bus, it can be demonstrated quite dramatically that the general good is far from well served.

If he were a genuine follower of Ms Rand, Mr Illarionov would be against strong government but the policies of his second hero, Gen Augusto Pinochet, point in the direction of a state that has overwhelming power.

There is a great deal of support for the Pinochet model among those in Russia who describe themselves as reformers. Many of them come from families connected to the old Bolshevik elite. Where the grandfathers preached terror to make communism work, the grandsons feel that similar medicine, though perhaps on a smaller scale, is justified in the cause of capitalism.

Another prominent supporter of a Pinochet-style regime for Russia is the banker Mr Pyotr Aven, who is consulted by Mr Putin from time to time. Totalitarian force, Mr Aven argues, should be used to pursue liberal reforms, as this was what worked in Chile in the past.

His views drew the following response from the Chilean ambassador to Russia, Mr Sergio Fernandez, in a letter to the English-language daily the Moscow Times: "Until my country regained democracy, the economic growth was unstable, foreign investment never reached important volumes, and Chileans suffered unjustified restrictions to their rights.

"To give just one example, during one year of democracy, Chile received more foreign investment than during the five best years for investment while Pinochet was in office. I would not advise Russia to follow the Chilean steps after the coup of 1973. Rather, I would suggest a further deepening of its political and economic liberties."

For his own part Mr Putin has preferred to stick to military rather than economic matters. On his first full day as President yesterday, the eve of the 55th anniversary of the end of the second World War, he visited Kursk, the site of that conflict's largest and most decisive tank battle. Before his inauguration, he identified himself with the air force by arriving in Grozny in a jet fighter and with the navy by taking part in manoeuvres in a submarine.

HE pursued the war in Chechnya ruthlessly, despite protests from Western leaders about its morality on the one hand and its long-term advisability on the other. This may indicate that Mr Putin is the type of person who puts greater value on his own views than on advice from others. The Rand-Pinochet proposals therefore, may not, hopefully, be implemented in full.

In one economic area Mr Putin has appeared to make his views clear. He sent out messages that there would be a strict separation between the state and the presidency on the one hand and the group of billionaires known as the oligarchy on the other. In the Yeltsin era, a number of so-called oligarchs virtually ran the country for their own benefit.

Some indications are emerging that Mr Putin's promise is not being kept. The Washington Post has reported a direct intervention on his part to put paid to a deal being done by a banker and media magnate, Mr Vladimir Gusinsky. Mr Gusinsky's main business rival, Mr Boris Berezovsky, with his strong propensity towards Kremlin intrigue, was the epitome of all that was wrong with the Yeltsin administration.

Mr Mikhail Kasyanov, whose name is expected to be put before the Duma this week for ratification as Prime Minister, is regarded in the West as solid, businesslike and reform-minded. In Russian political circles he is seen as a member of Mr Berezovsky's circle.

The evidence so far is circumstantial, but if there is a return to the old oligarchic ways then Mr Putin may need a real miracle to achieve his stated aims.