MOSCOW, April 4 (Itar-Tass) – Head of the Committee of Civil Initiatives, Russia’s former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin is against the introduction of the ban on foreign accounts for RF officials.
“I am for strict control over officials’ spending, it is necessary, justified, but not prohibitive (measures). He (official) should be transparent, but not in a prohibitive regime,” Kudrin said at a meeting of the Committee of Civil Initiatives. He also said that he regards “these measures ineffective.”
In the view of Kudrin, there is no need to fully publish the officials’ spending declarations. “The society needs to known exactly the spending and incomes,” but the declarations in detail should be accessible only for public or parliamentary commissions, he said. “We have many officials, but far from all of them make decisions,” stated the head of the Committee of Civil Initiatives.
Starting from this year, Russian officials and parliamentarians are required to submit information not only about their incomes for the previous year, but also about major expenditures. According to the decree of Russian President Vladimir Putin, the deadline for submitting the declarations is July 1; the deadline for submitting income declarations for most categories of citizens expired on April 1. In addition, the ban on holding accounts in foreign banks and owning securities of foreign issuers will be introduced.