Russian Finance Chief Publicly Objects to Leader Swap
MOSCOW — A senior member of the Russian government opened a rare public breach with the Kremlin on Sunday,juicy couture outlet saying he would refuse to stay on under the leadership shuffle that was announced over the weekend, in which the president and prime minister will change places.
The official, Aleksei L. Kudrin, Russia’s long-serving finance minister, said he would no longer work in the government if President Dmitri A. Medvedev became prime minister, citing what he said were irresponsible spending decisions by Mr. Medvedev.
Mr. Kudrin’s remarks were the first to suggest that the leadership swap announced Saturday, which sent a ripple of surprise among senior ministers, could lead to turmoil and a reorganization at the highest levels of government.
Several Russian officials said Sunday that they had no warning of the decision that Vladimir V. Putin planned to return as president after elections in March, which he is assured of winning, and appoint Mr. Medvedev as prime minister, despite Mr. Putin’s assertion on Saturday that that deal had been sealed “several years ago.”
The change means that all ministers will report to Mr. Medvedev, suddenly a diminished figure in Russian politics.
Mr. Kudrin has close ties with Mr. Putin, and he was said to be a top candidate for prime minister himself.
“I do not see myself in the new government,” he said in remarks that were reported by Russian news agencies on Sunday. “It is not just that I have not been offered the job, but I think that those differences of opinion that I have, they do not allow me to join this government.”
Speaking on the sidelines of a meeting of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Washington, he added, “I have differences with Medvedev on economic policy; they basically have to do with considerable spending on military goals.”
His comments laid bare the tension that has been kept under wraps while Russian leaders negotiated a reshuffle at the top of the government. Some analysts and former officials said Mr. Kudrin might feel that he had been sidelined.
“Kudrin is expanding his status and authority by explaining that he will only work directly with Putin,” Mikhail M. Kasyanov, who served as prime minister under Mr. Putin from 2000 until 2004, said in a telephone interview. “He is minimizing his dependence on Medvedev.”
Before the announcement, “nobody knew” of the planned swap, said Mr. Kasyanov, who now leads an opposition group, the People’s Freedom Party. “Putin conducts everything as if in the framework of a special operation. He doesn’t let anybody know, and nobody knew.”
A first deputy prime minister, Igor Shuvalov, confirmed in comments carried by Interfax that ministers had indeed been kept in the dark.
“We didn’t know,” he said. “If you think that someone had known about what was announced yesterday, it is not so. The leaders did not share information on this issue with us, of course; they didn’t discuss it with us. They discussed it among themselves.”
Mr. Kudrin’s threat injects uncertainty into the new government structure outlined Saturday. He has been an essential player on Mr. Putin’s governing team for two decades. Foreign investors consider him to be an important proponent of privatization and other reforms, as well as a hedge against financial chaos.
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