Vladimir Putin starts to show the strain as outrage mounts over MH17

2014/7/23 0:34:04

Alexei Kudrin, former finance minister: “Business wants to invest, build factories, trade. And business is very concerned about the things they hear on the radio and on television.”

 


By Kathrin Hille in Moscow for Financial Times:

 

The pressure on Vladimir Putin is intensifying. One of the Russian president’s most trusted economic advisers on Tuesday launched an unexpected attack on Mr Putin’s stand-off with the west.

 

Alexei Kudrin, a former finance minister and still consulted by the president at least once a month, warned that the isolationist course pursued by some of Mr Putin’s advisers ran counter to Russia’s business interests. “We have become the west’s adversary again,” Mr Kudrin said in an interview with state-owned news agency Itar-Tass.

 

 “There are forces in the country who have long wanted . . . isolation, maybe a certain self-sufficiency. Today this has all fallen on fertile ground.”

 

Mr Kudrin added: “Business wants to invest, build factories, trade. And business is very concerned about the things they hear on the radio and on television.”

 

For complete text of the article, link below:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/058a2a9e-11 ... eabdc0.html#ixzz38EVCrDvK

 

Photo courtesy Russia presidential press service

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