New Russian cabinet may be revealed today

The Russian President has arrived at Moscow's White House for a ministerial meeting. Earlier Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov submitted his proposal list to the Russian leader, and the make-up of the brand-new cabinet still to be officially announced.

The former Cabinet was dismissed on September 12 after Prime Minister Fradkov resigned to be replaced by Viktor Zubkov.

Mr Zubkov got the backing of the State Duma on September 14.

While in Sochi last Friday, President Putin confirmed he had received proposals for the composition of the new government and they would be approved soon.

And most of the experts agree that Russia is need of a governmental shake-up. 

“The idea of changing the structure of government is quite important. And I think it's almost too late, so better to do it now then never. I think what president Putin would like to do is to install government which will keep the same policies the same politics, the same tenders in economy, which he fundamentally implemented so far, after he will leave the office. I think we will have a new political system in Russia after March 2008, which will be much more pluralistic, to tell the truth, because I think it will be – Kremlin will play much smaller role, and government will play bigger role. And that is why government position is quite important,” Nikolay zlobin, Director of Russia and Eurasia Project at the World Security Institute, commented.

“All these years the government, especially its economic block, was busy dealing with the problem of macro-economics, inflation and other general problems. And this is a problem which is very important and crucial for the Russian government at the moment. The government was mainly focused on keeping stability. And now President Putin is trying to create a government which can provide necessary conditions for development because this is another task which he put before the government. The previous government practically never dealt with the problem of development in real economy segments of the Russian economy. He is demanding from the government to develop aircraft building or ship building or other huge programmes necessary at this moment. But Gref and the others already fulfilled the task for which they were supposed to be in the government. We need new people with a new vision for solving new problems,” Andranik Migranyan, Head of  the Russian Public Chamber Commmission on Globalization, National Strategy and Development, said.

“I think this government won’t be a technical one. The previous Fradkov’s government could be called technical as well but this epoch has passed. Mr Zubkov has proved with his first session which he held with the old government that he is really a tough leader who is going to return the centre of decision-making to government as it was in the Kasyanov’s times. So it seems it will be a strong government and probably one day it will be even a responsible government. I mean that the government will be probably appointed according to the results of the parliamentary elections. Not this time, but it is real for the future,” Kirill Koktysh from the Moscow State University of International Relations stressed.