Former finance minister Kudrin blames United Russia for economic stagnation
Aleksey Kudrin, addressing the State Duma, stated that the development of Russia’s political system is "lagging behind the challenges of the time and doesn’t provide the mechanisms to build up the country's modernization."
According to the former financial minister “even if we roll
up our sleeves right now, we’ll have to sweat our guts out for
three years or five years in order to achieve the new elements of
effectiveness.”
Kudrin put all the blame on United Russia in his speech at the
so-called Open Tribune in the Duma.
After the session, when asked by RIA-Novosti how he evaluates the
performance of Dmitry Medvedev’s government, Kudrin said it was
“unsatisfactory.”
United Russia’s Andrey Isaev found the former minister’s comments
“cynical and hypocritical.”
The MP said that his party can only be blamed for not pushing for
Kudrin’s resignation from the government earlier.
Isaev said it was the ex-minister himself, who laid the foundations
for the current financial difficulties as he refused to “use
natural resources for the development of the country”
during his time in office in 2000-11.
The parliament’s speaker, Sergey Naryshkin, backed Kudrin, saying
United Russia like any “political party must take responsibility
for the decisions it makes.”
Fair Russia party MP, Oksana Dmitrieva, stressed that United Russia
has “no political will” as the party only reflects the will
of the government in power.
She claimed Kudrin himself was responsible for all the losses,
“the great economic conditions in the last 13 years were lost
largely because of Kudrin’s actions,” Dmitrieva added.
In his recent interview with Komsomolskaya Parvada, Dmitry Medvedev
confirmed that Russia’s economic growth was insufficient and has to
be increased to 4 or 5 per cent per year.
At the same time, the head of the Russian government has called the
current world economic conditions “more or less acceptable”
for the country.
Medvedev promised that Russia wouldn’t see a repeat of the 2008-09
economic crisis, reassuring that there was no need to “squirrel
away stewed meat, soap, matches and salt” this time.