1.For quite a long time, the basic structure of the Russian politics lokked like the one or 'one and a half' party system, where the political life had to be focused within the only 'government party'. The change in the content of the very term of 'government party' has become the principal innovation. Elsewhere, that means the party in power, or the governing party; but in Russia the 'government party' is the one that belongs to the government.
2.The formation of the one-and-a-half-party system has experimentally proved the copy-book truth that impunity gives birth to corruption. The nomenclature has realized, that by joining the proper party and mounting the proper portrait on the wall anyone who is something in the system if free to treat the folks subordinate in any way he or she wishes, while any critic of his/hers would be labeled 'extremist', at the best. As a result, the totality of corruption seems to become a headache not just for the state, but also for the biggest, and therefore the most powerful corrupted ones.
3.In contemporary Russia, there are two parties to follow the interests of the groupings within the social stratum of influence, i.e. the ruling bureaucracy. The Unified Russia, a right-wing party by its policy,  reflects the position of 'liberal fundamentalists', while the 'social revolutionaries', urged to be left-wing and patriotic, are the alter ego to the oligarchy of force. Stimulating competition between the loyal bureaucratic parties the government demands much of them to  conform to fundamentally new, public and competitive, nature of their existence.
4.It is most likely, the successor will appear all the same. The simple requirement to possess the minimal managerial qualities cuts off almost all the nominees mercilessly advertised by the official propaganda. So, it is worthwhile to look closer to some 'secondary' figures still remaining in the shadow. Each of them belongs to one of the two principal clans and, consequently, needs to be 'counterbalanced', the latter not allowing the former to do away with political competitors.