Medvedev as Russian PM? Finance minister rebels over Putin plan

MOSCOW/WASHINGTON: Russia's finance minister rebelled on Sunday against Vladimir Putin's plan to make President Dmitry Medvedev his prime minister if he returns to the Kremlin by saying he would not serve in the next government. Foreign investors were alarmed by Alexei Kudrin's snub after Putin, who is now prime minister, announced he would run for president next March in an election that could extend his rule until 2024.
Kudrin, a Putin ally, has prime ministerial ambitions and said he had "disagreements" with Medvedev who may now struggle to establish his credibility as premier after being forced by Putin to renounce his dream of a second term as president. "I do not see myself in a new government," Kudrin, 50, said in comments released in Washington. Setting out his differences with Medvedev over the president's support for an increase in military spending, he said: "I think that the disagreements I have will not allow me to join this government."
Kudrin won the respect of investors as a guardian of financial stability by saving windfall oil revenues for a rainy-day fund which helped Russia through the 2008 global economic crisis.