MOSCOW, December 12 (Itar-Tass) —— Representatives of the United Russia party believe that ex-finance minister Alexei Kudrin is capable to unite different forces in Russia which belong to the democratic wing, deputy secretary of the presidium of the United Russia party Yuri Shuvalov told Itar-Tass on Monday.
Earlier Kudrin had declared that an authoritative force should appear on the right wing as a political result of the Duma election. “Half a year ago when a discussion around the Right Cause party was going on everyone was concerned that no authoritative force had appeared on the right wing,” Kudrin told the Vedomosti newspaper. “It is clear now that the deficit is much worse than we imagined. Today, one can openly say that the demand for such a force is so high that it will necessarily be created,” Kudrin said. He expects a process of consolidation of the liberal and democratic forces to begin soon, adding he was absolutely confident of that and “was prepared to promote this process.”
Shuvalov noted he had a high respect for Kudrin whose “point of view has the right to exist.” The formation of the right-wing liberal political force in modern Russia is one of the most important tasks, he said. Kudrin as an experienced politician might unite not only the right wing of the Russian electorate, but also unite the active minority which has no one to represent it now, Shuvalov said. In that case Kudrin’s experience of work in the executive bodies of power might prove useful, Shuvalov said. He did not rule out that such a political formation in future might become an opponent even to the United Russia, depending on “how well they would work.”