Careful care

Former Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Finance Alexei Kudrin will leave posts in all structures, including international ones, where he represented Russia. According to RIA Novosti, this was announced by Presidential Assistant Arkady Dvorkovich.

"Given the resignation from the post of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Alexei Kudrin, he will leave posts in the Council of Financial Markets, the National Banking Council, as well as in other structures, including international ones, where he represented the interests of Russia. These positions should be replaced by current civil servants," Dvorkovich said.

Answering the question of how quickly Kudrin would leave posts, the assistant to the head of state explained that this will happen "as procedural issues are solved."

The day before, it became known that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin excluded Kudrin from the military-industrial commission under the government and the Government Commission on Economic Development and Integration. The corresponding order was posted on Monday on the website of the Cabinet of Ministers, RIA Novosti reports.

On October 6, Putin said that Kudrin remains a “member of the President and Government”. "Despite the failure of an emotional nature, Kudrin remains a member of our team, he is a useful and necessary person. I hope he will work with us," Putin said, adding that this is the opinion of his and his President Dmitry Medvedev.

"As for Alexei Leonidovich, he, of course, is one of the best specialists not only in Russia, but also in the world," the prime minister said, noting that Kudrin is his "good comrade", with whom the prime minister maintains "very close, close relations for many years."

On September 30, in an interview with three federal television channels, Dmitry Medvedev said that Kudrin's resignation is "a case of state discipline and nothing more." "In our country there is no coalition government. We do not have a parliamentary republic, but a presidential one. We have a presidential government, which is holding a presidential course. Who does not agree," Medvedev said.

The decree on the resignation of Kudrina Medvedev signed on September 26. The press secretary of Medvedev Natalya Timakova emphasized that Medvedev fired Kudrin at the proposal of the prime minister. "The Minister of Finance of the application (on resignation. - Ed.) Did not submit. The president signed a decree in accordance with the current procedure on the proposal of the Prime Minister," Timakova said. Kudrin claimed that he personally resigned.

"I am addressing you right here with such a proposal: if you think that you have other views on the economic agenda than the president, that is, I, you can write an appropriate resignation application. Reply, of course, right here and now. Will you write a statement?" - said Medvedev at a meeting of the Presidential Commission on the modernization and technological development of the Russian economy.

“I really have disagreements with you, but I will make a decision in connection with your proposal, having consulted with the Prime Minister,” Kudrin said in response. “You can consult with anyone, including the Prime Minister, but while I am the president, I am making such decisions myself. You will need to decide very quickly and today give me an answer: either you proceed from the fact that the disagreements that you call do not exist, and then you have to comment on this. If these disagreements exist, I don’t see another way out, although, of course, it is unpleasant,” Medvedev said.

Before that, Kudrin said that he would refuse to work in the government if Medvedev led him. "I do not see myself in the new government. The point is not only that no one offered me, but I think that the disagreements that I have, they do not allow me to go to this government," Kudrin said. According to him, he and Medvedev have disagreements on economic policy, including them concern "significant expenses for military purposes."

"I am sorry that these issues are not discussed enough at the Congress of United Russia, questions about such serious resources that are spent on military purposes, which is a turning point in the country's budget policy," the minister said. In addition, Kudrin expressed disagreement with an increase in social expenses. According to him, "the trial reform in 2008 has not ended and cannot yet be considered successful."