Following a major government reshuffle last week, in which Ivanov was promoted from the posts of defense minister and vice premier, Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov assigned duties to his four deputies Thursday.
"I would like to inform you that I have signed a document outlining the duties of deputies and first deputy prime ministers," Fradkov told a government session.
The premier said responsibilities would be divided between his deputies along the priority lines of government policy.
Ivanov 54, a former KGB officer like Putin, will now supervise industry, transport, science, the defense industry, national defense, communications, law enforcement, and the nuclear and space sectors.
"These are what we call the real economy, including the defense industry, on which we place high stakes to diversify the economy and develop the sector in innovative ways," the head of government said.
Ivanov will now enjoy equal authority with another first deputy prime minister, Dmitry Medvedev, chairman of gas giant Gazprom's board of directors, who is also a potential presidential successor. Medvedev will be in charge of education, healthcare and the social sector.
He will guide socially oriented priority national projects in housing and demography, and will supervise the use of mineral and natural resources.
Alexander Zhukov has retained his responsibilities of deputy prime minister and will oversee lawmaking, intergovernmental fiscal relations, the main lines of the country's social and economic development and migration policy.
"Overall, everything related to macroeconomics," Fradkov said.
The president also appointed the former government chief of staff, Sergei Naryshkin, as a deputy prime minister. He will be responsible for foreign trade, including with former Soviet republics, and property relations.
Naryshkin, 52, who worked in the St. Petersburg mayor's office in the early 1990s under Putin, who was then deputy mayor of Russia's second city, will also lead a government commission on economic integration with the European Union and the Commonwealth of Independent States.
