MOSCOW — St. Petersburg has seen an attempted liberal coup. At least, that’s how one might describe a debate that began late last week at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Russia’s answer to Davos.
Alexei Kudrin, former finance minister and current chairman of the Committee for Civic Initiatives, an NGO, called for an early presidential election at the event. The next presidential election is currently scheduled to take place in the spring of 2018.
It’s a delicate, byzantine kind of coup. On the one hand, Kudrin and other reform-minded figures like German Gref, the CEO of Sberbank who sat on the …read more
Source: European Voice
