Former Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Kudrin has reaffirmed his decision not to work in the new administration of Vladimir Putin.
"On Sept. 24, I announced my decision that I would not work in the new government," Kudrin wrote on Twitter late Saturday.
Kudrin was ousted after a United Russia convention in late September at which President Dmitry Medvedev announced that he would not run for re-election but instead switch jobs with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Kudrin said at the time that he would not work with the government under those conditions because of existing disagreements on economic policy.
But speculation has swirled in recent days that Kudrin might return to the government after Putin moves back to the Kremlin in May.
But presidential economic aide Arkady Dvorkovich compared the prospect of Kudrin returning to the government with the possibility of his own participation in a football championship. "And I'm not going to play in the UEFA Cup," Dvorkovich tweeted in response to Kudrin's tweet.
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