Daily Journal: Insists

Former Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister, manager for Russia at the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, Alexei Kudrin, who was fired due to a statement of disagreement with President Dmitry Medvedev on fiscal policy issues, returned to this topic on October 10 during the Millennium Development Goals forum in Eastern Europe and Central Asia." Kudrin, as before, said that he was not satisfied with the policy of increasing military spending. According to the former minister, the increase in military spending is detrimental to medicine and education. “I have already expressed my position that increased military spending in Russia poses a threat to increased support for health and education programs. This, in fact, is the subject of my conflict with the current president,” Kudrin said.

He also said that in the next 10 years, the global financial crisis and the threat of its second wave will hinder the development of medicine, and states will be forced to save on the health of citizens. Consequently, “patients will have to pay more for medical services and medications.”

Indeed, in the plans of the Russian government, which Novaya Gazeta writes about with reference to tables from the Ministry of Finance, spending on military needs is growing in the coming years, while spending on education, healthcare, and housing and communal services is falling.