Putin announces new Russian government
Newly appointed Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has announced a new cabinet at a meeting at the government offices in Moscow. The premier informed that Viktor Zubkov and Igor Shuvalov will become first deputy prime ministers. Viktor Zubkov will be in charge for national projects in agriculture, as well as fishery and timber industry. Igor Shuvalov will be in charge for regulation in trade, state property, antimonopoly policy, promotion of competitiveness; he will also be conducting the talks on Russia's joining the World Trade Organization.
Alexei Kudrin, Igor Sechin (former deputy head of the presidential administration), Sergey Ivanov (former first deputy prime minister) and Alexander Zhukov are appointed as deputy prime ministers. Sergey Sobyanin ia given a deputy prime minister's position and head of the administration of the government (earlier, he was the head of the presidential administration).
Commenting on the reshuffle in the governmental structure, Putin informed that the former Ministry for Industry and Power Engineering was reorganized into two bodies — a ministry of industry and a ministry of power engineering. Sergey Shmatko was appointed as energy minister, Viktor Khristenko became industry and trade minister.
A ministry for sports, tourism and youth policy was established; Vitaly Mutko was appointed as its head. A new agency was also created for CIS affairs, the Federal Industry Agency, the Federal Agency for Construction, the Federal Healthcare Agency, the Federal Energy Agency and the Federal Air Navigation Agency were abolished.
Former presidential envoy to Privolzhye Federal District Alexander Konovalov was appointed as Justice Minister. Anatoly Serdyukov reappointed as the defense minister; former Russian ambassador to France Alexander Avdeyev became culture minister; former head of the presidential protocol Igor Shchegolev was appointed as the minister for communications.
Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev and Emergency Minister Sergey Shoigu, Economy and Trade Minister Elvira Nabiullina, Agriculture Minister Alexei Gordeyev, Education and Science Minister Andrei Fursenko, Healthcare Minister Tatyana Golikova, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Regional Development Minister Dmitry Kozak, Transport Minister Igor Levitin, Nature Resources Minister Yuri Trutnev preserved their posts.
14:17 05/12/2008
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