Vladimir Semago, deputy of the Russian State Duma from the United Russia Party, shared with Russia Today his ideas on what can be expected from the newly appointed Prime Minister and the new government.

Russia Today: So, Viktor Zubkov has been finally approved Prime Minister. Why do you think most of the deputies actually opted for President's choice?

Vladimir Semago: The answer is very easy, because deputies are very sophisticated in political life in our country and they can tell the difference between an order and a proposal. And in this case we received an order, definitely, because we have no choice. We didn't have any others, there was no discussion on this. The President said that at this moment we need this person. So we said “Yes!” because in general the course of President Putin is supported by most of the population of Russia. And so we have no hesitation about this.

RT: What about this new government? How different do you think it will be from the previous one and what does it have to offer that the other did not?

V.S.: Mr Zubkov received some questions about personnel changesin the government and he promised that some of the ministries will really change including the persons at the top of the ministries. We have a very funny situation because when some of the deputies asked him about  changes in the Ministry of Defence, someone among my neighbours said: “No. it is a private question.” Because, you know, he is the father-in-law of the current Minister of Defence. But, definitely the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Regional Development and definitely the Minister of Health, Mr Zurabov. It is the person who is always mentioned. It is necessary now if you have a discussion about  political life you have to cite Mr Zurabov as a negative example.

RT: So, basically these are the ministries that have been criticised recently?

V.S.: Yes. He said more, he said that we have to start administrative reform. He added that we have negative experience of this and we have to think about how to overhaul the government completely.

RT: How drastic will this coming reform and the government reshuffle be in your opinion?

V.S.: I say we have to think about this but we have no illusion that it will be something extraordinary. We could'nt imagine that we would have some revolutionary change. In general we don't need this just because of the election campaign. This is the main political event of the future. We will start and finish the election campaign and after that we will see maybe some special change in the government too.