Raf Shakirov resigned from the post of the head of the Internet project Open Government and does not work in the project since October 8, a source in the government told the Izvestia daily on Wednesday.
Shakirov confirmed this report in an interview with the Izvestia daily. "Initially it was a creative work, but recently my work turned just in the work of a public official, and this is not very interesting for me," he said. "I wish luck to the Open Government, which has some potential for development, particularly in the regions," he noted.
According to Raf Shakirov, the main reason for his resignation from the project is "the lack of creativity." He also noted that many ideas, which emerged in the project, were not realized at all. "We were planning to launch an Internet television within the operation of the website, but all remained on the paper. The Internet television is not a public television channel, everything is much cheaper. But this is already the details," Shakirov explained.
The experts took Shakirov's step in different ways. Some experts named the quitting of the journalist from the Open Government symptomatic, other experts did not see any logic in his resignation and named the former head of the Internet project as a technical official.
"Raf Shakirov is a serious journalist and editor. He understood that this project is unpromising. Many people realized this, but did not dare to admit this in the open way. The Open Government will not influence the decision-making, it is senseless," director of the Institute of National Strategy Stanislav Belkovsky said with confidence.
According to the political expert, this was "another idea to mislead the public society." "This is a mockery on the open government. The problem is in the incapability to fill with the real content the ideas, which Dmitry Medvedev voices," Belkovsky explained.
Director of the International Institute of Political Expertise Yevgeny Minchenko did not share this position.
"I believe that the Open Government will continue to work as it worked before. I heard many positive responses about its activities from several experts in the sphere that it brings a real benefit. I do not see any grounds to wrap up the operation of the Open Government. Shakirov is a technical figure. There is no such tendency in it. If curator of the Open Government Vladislav Surkov and minister Abyzov had resigned, it would have been possible to say about the tendencies," the expert believes.
The idea of the Open Government is being realized interestingly so far, there is some positive dynamics. He said that it is senseless to torpedo this process.