UPDATE: Kudrin: Russia needs to privatize entire oil sector in 7 years

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ST. PETERSBURG, Jun 1 (PRIME) -- Alexei Kudrin, chairman of the board at the Center for Strategic Research and former finance minister, thinks that Russia must privatize the entire oil sector in seven to eight years, he said at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on Thursday.

“Decrease of the state sector and increase of the private sector are achievable for us, this is our birthmark, the fact that we have not cut the state economy yet and in some cases have started to return to it. For instance, the oil sector must be privatized entirely in the next 7–8 years. We need no state companies today,” Kudrin said.

Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the government has no plans to privatize the oil sector.

“This is his well-known expert point of view. He advocates it in a well-argued manner, different points of view are also known but as far as I know, the government has no such plans,” Peskov said.

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