Putin: there will be no early resignation of Medvedev

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin denied assumptions about the possible early resignation of President Dmitry Medvedev, RIA Novosti reports. Putin does not see the need to become the acting president on the eve of the elections in March, according to him, this issue was not discussed.

According to Interfax, Putin also said that the ex-Minister of Finance Alexei Kudrin himself decided to go to a rally on Academician Sakharov Avenue. “I did not send him, he went, he is an adult boy,” Putin said at a New Year’s meeting with journalists of a government pool.

Kudrin himself claims that Putin is “not afraid of the March 4 elections” and is ready to hold the elections honestly. The day before, in an interview with Vedomosti, Kudrin said that he met with Putin in St. Petersburg on the eve of the rally on Sakharov Avenue and told him what he thinks. " The meeting was emergency and took place on the initiative of Kudrin. After that, the ex-minister decided to perform at the rally. He answered the questions of Vedomosti immediately after the performance.

Kudrin believes that in March there is an opportunity to hold "reference elections". "If there are honest elections, let the winner rule the country. Even if it is Putin. This thesis sounded in the speeches of the opposition," Kudrin says. He did not specify what measures would allow the president’s free and honest elections.

He again advocated the opposition dialogue with Putin and offered himself as an intermediary with an “independent position”. Kudrin believes that the Political reform package made by Medvedev “without any public discussion” needs to be finalized. In particular, according to Kudrin, the new rules of registration of parties should enter into force immediately, and not five years later.

Meanwhile, the former adviser to Putin Andrei Illarionov is convinced that the authorities are preparing for a sharp turn and revenge, which can be carried out in the most stringent form. The murders of opposition leaders, terrorist attacks, military conflict and the introduction of a state of emergency in the country are not excluded. According to Illarionov, the current political crisis finally split the “real tandem” - security forces and “system liberals”. As an example, Illarionov cited former Minister of Finance Alexei Kudrin, who tried to distance himself from Putin, which was perceived as a betrayal. Illarionov believes that during the “direct line” Putin, calling Kudrin to his friend, made him understand that “it would not be possible to jump off.” Meanwhile, according to Illarions, Putin was convinced that he could not count on the loyalty of "system liberals".

The State Duma deputy from Fair Russia Ilya Ponomarev responded to Kudrin's initiative to form a “narrow representative group” for negotiations with Putin. Ponomarev proposed to include himself in this group, as well as the co -chairman of Parnassus Vladimir Ryzhkov and the head of Rospil Alexei Navalny. All three entered the organizing committee of the rally on Sakharov Avenue.

Navalny, in turn, said that negotiations are already underway - "in an acceptable public format, through the resolution" (rallies in Bolotnaya Square and Sakharov Avenue. - Ed.). “The requirements are so simple and obvious that no one needs them to decipher them,” Navalny emphasized in his blog. He did not exclude that in the future a “group of certain negotiators” would be needed, but now “no one is endowed with a mandate for negotiations“ on behalf of the entire protest movement, Navalny writes. “Anyone who declares the opposite is an impostor,” he concludes.