Moscow, 15 April: President of the Effective Politics Foundation (Fond Effektivnoy Politiki) Gleb Pavlovskiy has said that serious structural changes will take place in both the government and the One Russia party after Vladimir Putin has become head of the cabinet and the party.

"Given that Putin accepted to become head of the government and One Russia, I think that we are talking not so much about a government based on one party as about the party itself being streamlined," Pavlovskiy told Interfax today. "One Russia remains very weak politically and is not a transparent structure at the grass-roots and the middle level. One Russia has spent too long just reflecting Putin's light," he added.

He said he thought that certain proposals on reforming One Russia would be prepared for the party's congress in the autumn. In particular, it remains unclear whether the recently-established discussion clubs will become factions inside the party, Pavlovskiy said. "It is also necessary to overcome the remaining traces of the party's eclectic nature," he added.

"One Russia has not yet become uniform and it is still evident that it was once formed out of Unity and Fatherland. It still has hidden factions and so on," Pavlovskiy said. He said it was difficult to discuss the nature of possible future radical reforms at One Russia. "The first radical measure has been taken," he said (Putin became chairman of the party - IF).

He also said that serious changes were likely to take place in the government once Putin became prime minister. "The government structure is bound to change because so far it has been just an economic management structure receiving orders from the Kremlin," Pavlovskiy said. In particular, the number of deputy prime ministers may increase under Putin, he said.

"Putin's style is to appoint people to oversee entire areas of activities," Pavlovskiy added. The government structure "will largely resemble Putin's administration in the Kremlin", he said. (passage omitted)

However, Pavlovskiy declined to speculate about who might be appointed ministers in the future government.