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#12 - JRL 9051 - JRL Home
KUDRIN, ZURABOV FALL OUT OF FAVOR WITH THE PEOPLE

Moscow, February 7 (RIA Novosti)-The Public Opinion Fund (POF) has published ratings of the population's trust in the state officials directly involved in the implementation of highly unpopular and painful reforms in Russia, Noviye Izvestia reports.

The results clearly show that in the last ten months the share of Russians who do not like Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin has increased from 8% to 14%, whereas the share of those who view it positively has dropped from 10% to 8%. The number of people who are not happy with the minister's work is almost three times higher than that of those who are satisfied with it. Strikingly, even those who would reelect Vladimir Putin as president are critical of the finance minister.

The attitude toward Health Minister Mikhail Zurabov (8% favoring him, and 26% criticizing him) is almost a mirror image of the public's opinion about his predecessor, Alexander Pochinok, prior to his dismissal. Only 12% believe the minister is carrying out his duties well, but 45% of Russians are not satisfied with his work.

The respondents obviously have other reasons to criticize the ministers aside from the exchange of benefits in-kind for cash payments (Mr. Kudrin is often blamed for poverty, low wages and subsidies, high prices and tariffs for communal services; Mr. Zurabov is blamed for the destruction of the health system), but this reform was the last straw, and public opinion with regard to both ministers has dropped to a critical level in the wake of it.

It is worth noticing that the POF, which experts claim often conducts such polls on behalf of the Kremlin, particularly focused the present study on Mr. Zurabov and Mr. Kudrin. Could it mean that the Kremlin is preparing the ground for their dismissal? Why else would the authorities want to find out what the public thought about the officials who have conducted extremely painful reforms that could not have been supported by society from the start?