Kudrin Offered Mega-Regulator Job

STRASBOURG, October 8 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin has been offered the post of head of Russia’s new financial mega-regulator, he disclosed on Monday.

“Yes, I have received the offer but I’m not ready so far to discuss it in detail,” Kudrin said on the sidelines of the global forum for democracy in Strasbourg.

First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov earlier instructed the government’s economic ministries and departments to submit proposals on improving regulation of the domestic banking system and financial markets.

One of the government’s options is a merger of the Central Bank, responsible for monetary policies, and the Federal Financial Markets Services, which oversees professional financial market participants, into a single mega-regulator.

A longtime ally of President Vladimir Putin, Kudrin, 51, resigned as finance minister and deputy prime minister last year following a row with the then-outgoing President and current Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev over budget issues including rising defense spending.

Kudrin made a partial return to national politics in April with the formal establishment of his Civil Initiatives Fund, an advisory body on political and economic issues under President Putin.