Putin gives new Kremlin jobs to ousted ministers

President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday gave several unpopular ministers purged from his Cabinet new positions in his administration, while the Kremlin-controlled parliament considered a draconian bill introducing a 200-fold rise in fines for taking part in unsanctioned protests.            

Putin named ex-Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev as an undersecretary of the presidential Security Council and named several other former ministers as presidential advisors.              

Putin, who won a third term in March's election, on Monday named a new Cabinet led by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, retaining some key figures but dropping some of the most widely detested ministers, like Nurgaliyev, Health Minister Tatyana Golikova and Education Minister Andrei Fursenko.                   

The appointment of former ministers to new official positions has been expected given Putin's record of keeping his lieutenants in government service despite public criticism.                              

The opposition denounced the move as an attempt to stifle dissent. Sergei Mironov, the leader of the socialist Just Russia faction, said it would boycott the hearings of the "odious" bill. The Communists said they would vote against the new legislation, but the opposition doesn't have enough votes to block the bill's passage in the State Duma dominated by the Kremlin's United Russia party.              

Police on Tuesday quickly rounded up several members of the liberal Yabloko party, who attempted to protest against the new bill outside the parliament building.

AP