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WORLD / Europe
Russia parliament approves Zubkov for PM
(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-09-14 19:26
MOSCOW - Russia's parliament overwhelmingly confirmed Viktor Zubkov as
prime minister on Friday, two days after President Vladimir Putin
surprised observers by nominating the virtually-unknown official.
Prime Minister nominee Viktor Zubkov speaks during a media briefing in
the building of Russia's Lower House of Parliament, the State Duma, in
Moscow September 13, 2007. [Reuters]
Lawmakers in the 450-seat State Duma voted by 381 to 47 to confirm
Zubkov, an old Putin acquaintance who the president plucked from
obscurity as head of a money laundering watchdog to replace sacked prime
minister Mikhail Fradkov.
The nomination of Zubkov, 65, deepened uncertainty about who Putin will
endorse to succeed him when he steps down as president next year.
Most observers had expected the prime minister's job to go to a
heavyweight figure as a stepping stone to the presidency.
Answering questions from lawmakers before the vote, Zubkov said he would
stick to the priorities set out by Putin in the past few years.
"I believe our priorities should be the strategic targets and programs of
concrete actions set out in the president's state of the nation addresses
in the past few years," he said.
Zubkov said keeping inflation down and preventing sharp rouble
fluctuation would be a key priority. This has been a key success of
Fradkov's government.
He said Russia should squeeze more income out of its mineral wealth.
"Russian oil and gas, forest, fish and other natural riches should bring
more revenue," he said.
Answering a lawmaker's question, he said corruption pervaded Russian
society and called for a special anti-corruption task-force to be set up.
Sounding a populist note as he addressed lawmakers who face an election
in two months, he said he would help the defense industry recover from
years of neglect, cut taxes and subsidize agriculture.
Under the constitution, Zubkov has one week to submit his proposals for a
new government to Putin.
With Zubkov installed as prime minister, attention will now turn to the
line-up of his new Cabinet. He signaled on Friday unpopular Health and
Social Affairs Minister Mikhail Zurabov could be a casualty of a
reshuffle.
Analysts predict that reformist Economy Minister German Gref could also
be dropped. Markets were focusing most attention on the fate of Finance
Minister Alexei Kudrin, who is credited with bringing Russia's finances
back to robust health.
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