You're reading: Kudrin: Medvedev’s Cabinet may sit for 5 years, if there’s no bad crisis

KAZAN - Former Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin thinks that the new Russian Cabinet may lack political will to carry out a number of reforms.

"The new government of Russia is quite professional but it should have political will to carry out a number of reforms and not fear certain, probably, unpopular steps," he said at a press conference in Kazan on May 25.

However, in his opinion, the Cabinet has already shown that it "is afraid and inclined to take populist steps."

"I am afraid it will lack the political will to conduct reforms, and that troubles me. And we will get that, despite it being a government of professionals, it will not achieve effective results," Kudrin said.

Speaking of the possible term of the new government, Kudrin did not rule out five years.

"It may sit as long as five years. Only if there is a deep economic crisis, then there is a serious probability that it will function for a shorter time. Otherwise I don’t expect that it will have a shorter term," he said.