Deputy of the State Duma of the RF Igor Artemyev (Yabloko) is convinced that the subpoena for Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin to the Public Prosecutor’s Office of St. Petersburg is related to the struggle for power in the present Russian government. Artemyev made this declaration on November 29 at a press conference in St. Petersburg.

At a different time in the 1990s Kudrin and Artemyev headed the Finance Committee of the Administration of St. Petersburg.

Artemyev also explained that “many people in Moscow don’t like the St. Petersburg team. Here he gave an example of the continuous criticism of the economic programme of the present Minister for Economic Development and Trade of the RF German Gref (in 1997-1998 he headed the municipal property management committee of St. Petersburg Administration). “Look at the attempts to discredit Gref’s programme, even people who have not read it,” said Artemyev adding that he himself knows this programme well and can say that “despite all the drawbacks in this programme, it represents a modern development programme for the country. “Minor issues may be disputed, but in general the programme definitely provides the right direction for Russia’s development”, stressed Artemyev.

According to Artemyev, the latest developments in the Russian government

“have taken place because many forces, including corrupt forces and the oligarchs, want the St. Petersburg team to disappear, so that everything reverts to the previous ways and the problem of reform is not reformed radically, so that it would be possible to use court bureaucrats to resolve personal problems and place huge amounts of money in one’s pockets”.

Artemyev is also convinced that there is no link between the subpoena of

Kudrin to the public prosecutor’s office and the latest developments concerning a number of St. Petersburg banks, where documents have been confiscated.

According to Artemyev, “the banking case is related to the activity of the top officials of the city’s present administration, first and foremost everybody working in the current and previous committee for the organisation of public services and amenities, which have been subjected to a number of scandals”. Artemyev also said in his view “it is clear that the prosecutor’s office of the city has decided to investigate the most insignificant details of certain operations of the committee responsible for the organisation of public services and amenities of the St. Petersburg administration.”

Based on Interfax reports.