Russia's Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin who has ruled out working in the next government, if President Dmitry Medvedev becomes premier, following Vladimir Putin's expected return to the presidency, will decide on his further work with his future employer, Putin's spokesman said.
"The question of whether he (Kudrin) will or will not work is an issue of his employer. And as a person who could be potentially invited for work, he has the right to announce his opinion in advance," Dmitry Peskov said in response to a question by reporters about Kudrin's work in the next government after the presidential elections in Russia next March.
Kudrin announced on Sunday he would decline a job in a future Russian government to be headed by Medvedev over disagreements on economic policies.
"I do not see myself in a new government. The point is not only that no one has offered me the job. I think that the disagreements I have will not allow me to join the government," Kudrin told reporters.
Speaking at the annual congress of the ruling United Russia party on Saturday, Medvedev said he was ready to make way for Putin to return to the presidency next March in return for an offer from Putin to form a new government.
Kudrin, 50, has served as finance minister since 2000, under whom the Russian government has paid most of its substantial foreign debt and created oil wealth funds to help Russia live through the global economic and financial meltdown.
Peskov said Kudrin as a real professional had always safeguarded his viewpoint, which frequently differed from Putin's and Medvedev's opinion on particular economic issues.
