The dismissal of Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin foreshadows an era of startling new developments for the country, tycoon and possible presidential candidate Mikhail Prokhorov said on Tuesday.

"Yesterday's dismissal of Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin brought to the surface...one extremely interesting issue," Prokhorov wrote on his blog.

"I believe we are standing on the threshold of a very important - perhaps tectonic - change in the consciousness of the elite. Including the ruling elite. Their polarization will occur and this will be inevitably accompanied by the emergence of new ideologies and new concepts for development," he went on.

He also said the "new people" who would forward these ideologies and plans would not fit into the usual concepts of "liberal-conservative and left and right."

Prokhorov - who stepped down recently as head of the Right Cause party but has been tipped as a possible candidate in the 2012 presidential elections - predicted more resignations in the cabinet.

President Dmitry Medvedev dismissed Kudrin on Monday as Russia's finance minister and deputy prime minister.

Kudrin invoked the head of state's wrath after saying he would decline a job in a future Russian government that Medvedev is likely to head. Kudrin cited disagreements with the president on economic policies, in particular, on considerable defense expenditures, as the reason.

President Medvedev said on Saturday at a United Russia party congress that he believed Prime Minister Vladimir Putin should stand in March presidential elections. Medvedev will head United Russia's ticket at December's polls and is likely to be named prime minister in the event of Putin's return to the Kremlin.

The Right Cause might invite Kudrin to lead the party after the December's parliamentary election, party acting chairman Andrei Dunayev said on Monday.