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New Economic Crisis Could Lead to Govt. Change in Russia - Kudrin

10 April 2012 00:55 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said on Monday a new economic crisis in Russia may lead to regime change, APA reports quoting Ria Novosti.

â€œThe country was affected by a similar crisis, caused by falling oil prices, in 1990 and 1998,â€ he said in an interview with the MK daily newspaper.

â€œThat ended in what was effectively a change of government. It could happen again.â€

He warned of â€œserious problems,â€ especially on the â€œinterregionalâ€ level.

â€œThe threat of division will always be an element of our history,â€ he said, admitting however that there was probably no danger of the countryâ€™s disintegration.

Only a â€œsound economic policyâ€ can consolidate society, said Kudrin, who is head of the Civil Initiatives Fund, a think tank that casts itself as an advisory body on political and economic issues under president-elect Vladimir Putin.