Russia's newly-appointed Cabinet is capable of producing “advanced, groundbreaking reforms” with the government looking like “a tiger ready to make a leap forward,” head of the Russian Audit Chamber, Alexei Kudrin, said Friday.
Speaking at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum, Kudrin encouraged officials to take a more decisive role in implementing the Russian President’s ambitious economic program, revealed by Vladimir Putin on May 7, just hours after his official swearing-in ceremony. Among the goals is raising the average life expectancy and living standards.
While expressing optimism about the government’s future performance, the chief of the Russia’s finance watchdog noted that the Cabinet so far proved not to be active and daring enough in tackling its objectives.
“In the 2000s, it was the government that pushed the president, and he was saying, ‘Slow down, let’s be more careful’. And today the President is setting the bar high, while the government is overthinking,” he told an audience during one of the forum’s events. One of the steps could be raising of the retirement age, which, according to Kudrin, is inevitable and will be a bold move.
Kudrin is one of Russia’s leading economists. Prior to being appointed to lead the Audit Chamber, he advised Putin on economic affairs, and before that he was Finance Minister for more than 10 years.