MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 19th January, 2020) Former Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said his new post of the deputy chair of the Security Council would not prevent him from remaining the chairman of the ruling United Russia party.
Medvedev and his government offered their resignation to President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, following the president's state of the nation address. Later in the day. Putin said he was planning to introduce the position of the deputy chair of the Security Council and offer the job to Medvedev.
"Speaking about the particular new job, being a deputy in this position does not prevent one from political activities, including party leadership. I remain the chair of the United Russia party. This is our leading political force, this is our ruling party," Medvedev told Channel One in an interview.
According to Medvedev, the party has to get ready for this year's September elections, where some regions will be choosing new local chiefs while others will vote for lawmakers.
"We have to get ready for the elections that will take place this year, on September 13. And, of course, potentially for the State Duma [parliament's lower chamber] elections that will take place next year," Medvedev said.
Regarding the government that resigned last week, the former prime minister said there had been some unsolved tasks.
"Undoubtedly, there were difficulties as well. It is true. There were unsolved tasks as well. I mean the fact that real disposable income was barely growing. This, of course, came about as the result of the general situation in the economy, but this has to be dealt with. Everyone is talking about this, the president spoke about this in his address. And this is probably the key task for the new government," Medvedev said.
The ex-prime minister said he was "generally satisfied with how things were going and how the top executive branch was working." He remarked that his first government had to work at the time of the slumping oil prices and sanctions linked to the Crimean referendum. As a result the government had to work on replacing many imported goods and ensuring economic stability.
