On 13 March Alexei Kudrin, former Finance Minister of Russia, visited the Blavatnik School of Government to give a special masterclass on his experiences in the Russian government.

Mr Kudrin began his public service in the Mayor’s Office in St Petersburg. In this and subsequent roles, he has worked to craft and implement major economic reforms across the public and private sectors.

Speaking through an interpreter, Mr Kudrin explained that when he joined the Finance Ministry during Boris Yeltsin’s presidency, tax receipts for industry were either miniscule or non-existent. He set to work stamping out evasion and simplifying the tax code, and by 2000, he said, everyone who owed tax was paying on time – and in money, not in kind.

Mr Kudrin’s proudest achievement has been shoring up Russia’s public finances. Over his eleven-year tenure as Finance Minister, he dramatically reduced the country’s government debt, bolstered foreign currency reserves and established a special stabilisation fund using oil and gas revenues. This allowed the government to weather the global economic downturn relatively well.

However, Mr Kudrin is concerned for Russia’s continued growth. He worries that not enough oil and gas revenues were saved in the past and that, under political pressure, ministers will spend the stabilisation fund too quickly. He also worries about the price of oil, knowing that abundant shale gas in other parts of the world, as well as renewables, will eventually force it down.

Mr Kudrin fears that Russia will eventually be in the same position as developed countries, which he thinks have all spent too much. He admits that telling leaders the truth is very difficult; pretending problems don’t exist is much easier. Still, he believes that the defining principle of public service is to ‘always defend your position no matter what’.

Alexei Kudrin was Russia’s Finance Minister from 2000-2011. He previously served in the office of the Mayor of St Petersburg, then as Deputy Mayor, Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration, First Deputy Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister. He resigned from the Finance Ministry in 2011. He is currently Dean of the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences at St Petersburg University.