Russian deputy PM comments on distribution of duties in reshuffled cabinet
RIA Novosti
Moscow, 18 February:
[Newly appointed Deputy Prime Minister] Sergey Naryshkin thinks that during Prime Minister [Mikhail] Fradkov's absences, First Deputy Prime Ministers Sergey Ivanov and Dmitriy Medvedev will take turns chairing cabinet meetings.
Answering a relevant question from a journalist, Sergey Naryshkin, who since Thursday [15 February] has been performing deputy prime minister's duties in addition to his role of the government chief of staff, said: "I cannot say for sure, but perhaps, in order to keep a certain balance, [they will do it] by taking turns."
He noted that whenever he left office for a working trip, he delegated his duties to one of his three deputies in turns. [Passage omitted]
"In the current model of the administration, the deputy prime minister's role is not to oversee one or more ministries. Each minister on his own is a deputy prime minister with a huge scope of authority," Naryshkin said. "The deputy prime minister's role is to coordinate a number of ministries, services and agencies for resolving major interagency and inter-sectoral problems. None of the deputy prime ministers is going to take away powers from any minister," he stressed.
[In another report at 0900 gmt, RIA Novosti quoted Naryshkin as saying that on 16 February Prime Minister Fradkov chaired a meeting to discuss a draft document on the distribution of duties in the reshuffled cabinet. According to Naryshkin, Sergey Ivanov is going to oversee industrial policy in both the civilian and defence industry sectors as well as transport, communications and technical regulation. "As regards Dmitriy Anatolyevich Medvedev, his duties include issues related to demography and sectoral aspects associated with the national projects," Naryshkin said, noting that Medvedev was also responsible for some other "equally significant" issues.
Answering a question on his new duties in coordinating foreign economic relations, Naryshkin said that the Stabilization Fund would remain within the scope of authority of another deputy prime minister, Aleksandr Zhukov.
At 0901 gmt, RIA Novosti quoted Naryshkin as saying that he would work on improving the currently "very unbalanced" structure of Russian exports to the CIS countries and strengthening integration processes in the CIS. He also noted that import and export "transaction costs" in Russia were "too high" because of the "difficult and insufficiently transparent customs procedures".]