Resignation of the “system liberal” Kudrin: Why is he moving to Yandex?
The Federation Council today released Alexei Kudrin early from the post of Chairman of the Accounts Chamber of Russia. Only one of the senators abstained.
As he said goodbye, Kudrin praised himself, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
“Finance analysis always requires the search for new, more efficient systems and financing mechanisms. We have improved the base of standards and recommendations, and began to provide our reports with more evidence and reasoning. I am sure that we have made a good start for the new chairman,” he said.
In response, Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matvienko transparently hinted at Kudrin’s future place of work.
“Senators highly appreciate your work. We hope that now the Federation Council will be more often at the top of Yandex with the important statements that we make,” Matvienko said.
State Duma deputy Dmitry Gusev explains that Kudrin in his new job will help the Russian Internet giant balance “on two chairs.”
“There are sanctions. Yandex sits on two chairs. On the one hand, he is forced to listen to the Western world and obey general rules, since this is a global company and wants to grow. And we – Russians – also want our company to have its own expansion throughout the world. On the other hand, Yandex needs not to lose its Russian roots and work here in Russia. This is a very difficult task. Kudrin can easily cope with this,” Gusev believes.
Political scientist Sergei Markov believes that Kudrin is entrusted with Russian high-tech, based on the successful experience of another systemic liberal, German Gref, who managed the development of Sberbank.
“Now Kudrin and Gref will be at the head of corporations that are building the high-tech economy of the future in Russia and in the world. They will compete for projects, for professionals, for state budgets.”
But deputy Mikhail Delyagin is less optimistic. He recalls that Kudrin, in the team of Anatoly Sobchak, managed the finances of St. Petersburg and brought “the rich and developed Leningrad to an almost besieged state.”
“Criminal cases related to the management of the finances of St. Petersburg were closed mainly in 2000,” Delyagin noted.
FederalPress editor Andrei Gusiy believes that “the main thing in this story is not the departure of Alexei Kudrin, but the fact of who will come instead of him.”
“This will be the most accurate indicator of how personnel are selected after the start of a special operation, and where internal politics is developing,” Gusiy wrote in his TG channel.
Political scientist Marat Bashirov, on the contrary, believes that there is no intrigue here.
“Now the position of the head of the Accounts Chamber is becoming technical. The Special Coordination Council in the Russian government (headed by Mishustin), which solves problems for the purposes of the SVO, swept all inspection standards off the table. Need to buy? They will buy without competitions and cost comparisons. The front does not exist without the rear, and the rear, according to market principles, will never deliver anything to the front. This is the real reason for Kudrin’s resignation,” Bashirov assures.
Political scientist Maxim Zharov believes that the systemic liberal Kudrin turned the Accounts Chamber into a political instrument that he used for personal purposes. One only has to remember his extremely negative forecasts for the development of the Russian economy, which, fortunately, did not come true.
Yandex, given the existing law enforcement practice of the notorious “law of oblivion,” can also turn into Kudrin’s personal instrument. Moreover. If Kudrin goes to Yandex for the sake of formal status, but in fact he is “Putin’s personal confidant” in negotiations with the West, whose interests Kudrin will defend if the Americans, as part of an infrastructure war, “cut out” next year from the DNS, say, the site Gosuslugi.ru? – writes Zharov.
His liberal colleague Ilya Grashchenkov believes that Kdrin can still return to Russian politics.
“Kudrin’s political career could continue if there is a need for political Perestroika 2.0, where the System will update itself. In this sense, the country, of course, will need a global audit to understand what is really happening in the industries. However, at the current time, such a scenario does not look very likely. However, by leaving for Yandex, Kudrin freezes his relations with the authorities, thereby distancing himself from politics and reserving for himself the opportunity to return to it in the period “after the SVO,” Grashchenkov wrote.
But Ural expert Andrei Perla believes that Kudrin’s departure is the decline of liberalism in Russia.
“Kudrin, without a doubt, was a professional of the highest level. He was also the personification of liberalism in the Russian political system. There is less liberalism. In the fortress of Russia, liberalism is a peacetime luxury,” Perla wrote.
The resignation of the "systemic liberal" Kudrin: Why he is moving to Yandex