Russian premier says nothing has changed in his relations with Putin

(Interfax – Moscow, 13 November) [Prime Minister] Dmitriy Medvedev has said that after stepping down as president and moving to the government, his relations with Vladimir Putin have not changed.

“As regards about our relations with the president – I have commented on this topic many times – nothing has changed since I went to work in the government while my colleague Vladimir Putin was elected president of the Russian Federation,” Dmitriy Medvedev said in an interview with the Finnish media ahead of his visit to Finland.

“We have longstanding relations. Recently, when I was congratulating him on his birthday, I said that we had already known each other for more than 22 or probably 21 years, practically, and generally this is a long time in anyone’s life. Speaking of my life, that is almost all of my mature, adult life. This is a long time, as you might imagine. Therefore everything is fine with us,” Medvedev noted.

As regards relations between the government and the president, the prime minister said that they were normal, working, decent relations, as they should be between the president and the government.

“There is nothing unusual, as there is nothing unusual in the fact that new people join the government (or people leave it), it happens in every country, and it happens in our government,” Medvedev said.

He stressed that the reasons for which some members of the cabinet join or leave it were also known to everyone: “These are totally public things: Someone simply loses one’s nerve, because it is hard work, and people admit that ‘yes, we are not ready to work’, it happens, it is absolutely normal”.

“In other cases it is necessary for reasons of ensuring transparency, in order to conduct the necessary investigations and take the necessary decisions. This is also normal. This happens in other countries as well,” the prime minister summed up.