Russia Moving Ahead With Forming Government, Putin Proposes Names Of Cabinet Ministers

May 12, 2008 7:16 a.m. EST

Moscow, Russia (AHN) - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has put together a list of names of proposed cabinet ministers for the government he will chair with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

Cabinet ministers must be approved by the president and Medvedev indicated he might be ready to act.

"It so happened that we've had enough time to draft the government's structure and to look at the personalities," Medvedev was quoted as saying by Itar-Tass news.

Putin moved to the role of prime minister after Medvedev became president last week. Putin read the names of the proposed ministers in a government meeting, saying there would be some new names in the cabinet.

Among the proposed cabinet members are some old names.

Putin asked that Anatoly Serdyukov stay on as defense minister and that former prime minister Viktor Zubkov become first deputy prime minister and fisheries minister, according to BBC news.