A spokeswoman for outgoing President and Prime Minister hopeful Dmitry Medvedev denied on Thursday that the line-up for the new federal government would be announced within weeks.
“All staff and structural decisions regarding the new government will be voiced after the new Prime Minister is appointed” by the parliament, Natalya Timakova said at a press conference in Moscow.
The Kremlin said earlier that the new government will be presented to the public after the May 7 inauguration of incumbent Prime Minister and president-elect Vladimir Putin, who promised his current job to Medvedev in September.
But Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov was cited on Thursday by RBC Daily news website as saying that the Cabinet’s line-up could be revealed before the inauguration. Another Kremlin source told the website that the announcement may take place on April 11, when Putin addresses the parliament for the last time as Prime Minister.
Putin has not said when he intends to nominate a Prime Minister to the lower parliamentary chamber, the State Duma, which is controlled by United Russia, whose ticket Medvedev headed at the elections in December.
