RA’s Daily Russia News Blast – May 16, 2008
TODAY: Putin creates inner cabinet; public calls for balanced foreign policy; police prepare for British football fans amid fears of violence; Medvedev to fund nuclear forces; Georgia and Russia in talks. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin says the government’s executive body is “clumsy and over-bureaucratic”, and will accordingly create an inner cabinet, or “presidium”, comprising key ministers that will meet once a week. Dmitry Medvedev has appointed Viktor Ivanov, a former aide to the Russian president, to head the Federal Service for Control over the Circulation of Narcotics. In response to the newly appointed Cabinet, the Communist opposition party said, “Old People, Old Policies, Old Problems.” “[…] mutual suspicions and intrigues between Medvedev’s Kremlin and Putin’s White House are inevitable”. Will Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin will retain his longtime influence over the country’s fiscal policy? A VTsIOM poll reveals that the public sees a need for “greater balance” in Russia’s relations with the West.