Putin appoints new Russian cabinet members

MOSCOW - Russian President Vladimir Putin appointed new cabinet members on Tuesday, according to the decrees Kremlin published on its website.

According to one of the decrees, the new government has reduced its former ten deputy prime ministers to nine. A former Kremlin aide Andrey Belousov became First Deputy Prime Minister.

Yury Borisov, Yury Trutnev and Tatyana Golikova remain the deputy prime ministers.

The postions of new deputy prime ministers were taken by Dmitry Grigorenko, who will also serve as Chief of Staff of the Government; former Deputy Mayor of Moscow for Urban Development and Construction Marat Khusnullin; former head of the Federal Service for State Registration Viktoria Abramchenko, former Gazprom Media board chair Dmitry Chernyshenko and former deputy head of Federal Tax Service Alexey Overchuk.

According to another decree, Sergei Lavrov has retained his post of the Russian foreign minister.

The ministers who have also retained their former posts including Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev, Energy Minister Alexander Novak, Minister of Trade and Industry Denis Manturov.

Maxim Reshetnikov becomes the Minister of Economic Development, leaving the post as the Governor of Perm Krai.

Anton Siluanov was appointed as the finance minister, resigning as the First Deputy Prime Minister.

Putin also appointed some new ministers including Olga Lyubimova as Minister of Culture, Mikhail Murashko as Minister of Health, Valery Falkov as Minister of Science and Higher Education, Oleg Matytsin as Minister of Sport, Sergei Kravtsov as Minister of Enlightenment, Anton Kotyakov as Minister of Labor and Social Protection, Maksut Shadayev as Minister of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media.

The previous government headed by Dmitry Medvedev tendered its resignation last Wednesday, shortly after Putin made an address to the Federal Assembly. A day later, Putin appointed the former head of the Russian Federal Tax Service Mikhail Mishustin as the new prime minister.