MOSCOW, April 21. /TASS/. Rumors linking the activities of former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, Head of Russia’s Center for Strategic Research, with his possible appointment as prime minister are nothing more than political exercises, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

"It is some kind of a verbal joust," he said.

The Kremlin spokesman pointed out that Kudrin was a broad-range expert "so it is only natural that he has an opinion on a wide range of issues." "It is understandable that some try to link it with his electoral plans but it is not right," Peskov added.

When asked to comment on Kudrin’s statement in which he said that the state government system was like "an old slow car" because of the state’s active participation in the economy, Peskov noted that the state participation had had to be increased after the 2008 crisis. At the moment, it helped to "prevent the market meltdown and minimize the consequences of the toughest economic crisis that the world had to face," he added.

"Of course, such a large country and a big economy like ours cannot make any sudden movements, in any case," the Kremlin spokesman went on to say. However, he admitted that "there is some room for improvement."

At the same time, according to Peskov, the Kremlin is ready to listen to Kudrin, as well as to other experts. The presidential spokesman said that experts had been expressing different opinions lately.

Eaarlier on Friday, at the Krasnoyarsk Economic Forum, Kudrin said that he would call the government system "an old squeaky and slow car that has little power and all the time drives the wrong way, it corrects the movement each time but with little positive result."