MOSCOW, March 12 (Itar-Tass World Service) — Russia’s former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin promised on Sunday he would organise his own fund to support civil initiatives and confirmed once again he was not going to work in the future government. He explained that it was especially important now that the civil activity is high to improve the work on implementation of civil initiatives in various spheres.
“I plan to organise a fund. Will initiate bills necessary for adoption, and will support rational initiatives,” he wrote in his Twitter micro blog.
Experts told the Kommersant they did not rule out the fund may become for Kudrin “a temporary platform,” which later on will let him to become a politician: either a new party’s founder or head of the government.
“Organisation of a fund is a way to take a break in the present uncertain situation,” the newspaper quotes head of the Petersburg Politics Fund’s Head Mikhail Vinogradov. Over the time of his career, Alexei Kudrin used to be an “office” politician.
“Parties will spring up all over soon,” and “Kudrin’s potential, to put it mildly, is not very big,” Head of the International Institute of Political Expertise Evgeny Minchenko told the newspaper. The major “purpose of the fund – fight for the position of prime minister.” The expert said that Kudrin hopes the new cabinet headed by Dmitry Medvedev “will not be successful, and he will be invited to take the position of prime minister.”
The Russian history has not seen cases, where parties emerged from funds, unless the power is interested in those, the Kommersant writes. This can be proved by the carrier in public politics of former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov, who failed to register any political project, and managed to register only the Civil Alternative fund. Besides, there are no examples how an incumbent politician, involved in social and educational activities, returns in the big politics. Indirect proofs are funds of former presidents. For example, the Gorbachev Fund, organised by the first /and last/ President of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev, is of interest for experts only. Or the fund of the first President of Russia Boris Yeltsin, which is called in his name, and which is of interest for experts only, too.
The activity of the fund will not affect Kudrin’s support of organisation of a right party, the Vedomosti quote his friend as saying.
Medvedev should not have fired Kudrin, a governmental official says ironically in his commentary to the newspaper: “In the past, he used to calls problems inside, now he will be doing the same, but from the outside.” “Medvedev has simply untied Kudrin’s hands to continue sticking to his guns,” the official said. He did not rule out organisation of Kudrin’s fund was not something new for President Elect Vladimir Putin.
The Novye Izvestia writes that another active user of the Internet, Governor of the Kirov region Nikita Belykh, has started a discussion with the former prime minister. He asked Kudrin, why he would need organising a fund if it is not necessary for solving the tasks. “Quite a lot could be done without a fund, but it is necessary to hire professionals, to have an expertise, to implement innovations,” Kudrin replied. Belykh reacted that at first it would be necessary to “revise and check the existing initiatives, offered earlier.” “This is quite possible to do,” his counterpart agreed.