First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov called on Friday for the Russian leadership to focus on developing key institutions in the six years following the 2012 presidential elections.
“We have been saying for many years that the leadership should maintain a certain level of stability; this we have in Russia,” Shuvalov said during a working breakfast at the St Petersburg Economic Forum. “Everything should be geared toward the fact that the country will have developed institutions by 2018.”
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has made efforts to push through a modernization drive during his term in office, while Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who was president for two terms from 2000-2008, has traditionally stressed the need for stability over reform. Neither of the two men have ruled out running in the forthcoming elections.
Shuvalov hinted on Friday at an overhaul of the current leadership, saying that “many new faces” would enter government after the elections.