Russian Prime Minister Putin appoints new Cabinet

Source: CCTV.com | 05-13-2008 10:40

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin named his new Cabinet on Monday, bringing in loyalists from the Kremlin. There are 24 positions, eight of them new.

Putin left several prominent ministers untouched, including Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov and Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin. He increased his deputies to seven, compared to five for his predecessor, Viktor Zubkov.

Meanwhile, Zubkov was made a first deputy prime minister. The other first prime ministers include Igor Shuvalov, a top policy aide in Putin's Kremlin. President Dmitry Medvedev quickly approved the appointments.

Editor:Du Xiaodan