Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin will not take a role in the government if Dmitry Medvedev is appointed prime minister in May as expected, Vedomosti reported Monday, citing four unnamed federal officials.
"Medvedev plus Sechin doesn’t work — it's a medical fact. They can't stand each other," one official said.
“Sechin is too influential and will dominate Medvedev's Cabinet, which for the latter is unacceptable,” another official said.
The sources did not know exactly where Sechin, who currently oversees the oil and gas sector, would go next. They suggested that he might take a post in the presidential administration, head a large company such as Gazprom, or take the helm of a security agency.
Sechin has been active recently in an anti-corruption campaign, which an unnamed official close to the presidential administration thinks is intended to boost his political reputation.
The person seen as most likely to replace Sechin is Rosatom head Sergei Kiriyenko, a move by which, Vedomosti sources speculate, the Kremlin would hope to show a shift from state capitalism to liberalism.
Kiriyenko previously headed the liberal Union of Right Forces faction in the State Duma and was later appointed the president’s representative to the Volga Federal District.
