MOSCOW, March 21 (RIA Novosti) - A fiscal regulator has been proposed for a senatorial post, Russia's finance minister said Wednesday.

"[Viktor] Zubkov has reached an age inappropriate for civil service and has been recommended as a senator," Alexei Kudrin said.

The minister did not specify when the head of the Federal Service for Fiscal Monitoring would step down.

Kudrin said Zubkov, 65, had all but pioneered fiscal intelligence in Russia by forming a system to curb money laundering in the country and facilitated Russia's removal from the Financial Action Task Force black list, an international organization combating money laundering.

Consequently, the minister confirmed the rumors that Zubkov, who has headed the department since it was established in 2001, was planning to hand in his resignation.

Russian newspapers attributed the resignation to political confrontation among Kremlin groups ahead of parliamentary elections in December.

Zubkov resigned against the backdrop of complicated relations between the service and Central Bank. Zubkov recently raised doubts at parliamentary hearings regarding the bank's efficiency in its monitoring functions. He backed moves to reform the system, and amendments were approved in February which obliged the Central Bank to coordinate its anti-laundering measures with the service.

In 1992-1993, he worked under then-Deputy Mayor of St. Petersburg and currently President Vladimir Putin, who headed the Committee for External Relations of the city Mayor's Office and promoted international relations and foreign investment.

A source of manpower for the current political elite, the committee also gave a post to Oleg Markov, deemed the most probable successor to Zubkov. Kudrin earlier signed a resolution to appoint him deputy head of the Federal Service for Fiscal Monitoring. He was first deputy chief of the presidential protocol before the appointment.