New Russian government announced

A new government of the Russian Federation has been chosen. As announced by the department of government information, the new vice premier has been named as Alexander Zhukov. The minister of transportation and communications has been named as Igor Levitin, the minister of defense remains Sergei Ivanov, the minister of natural resources has been named as Yuri Trutnev, governor of the Perm region, the minister of culture and information is to be the dean of the Moscow conservatory, Alexander Sokolov, the head of the ministry of economic development and trade is to be German Greff, the head of the ministerial apparatus will be Dimitri Kozak, the head of the ministry of emergency situations is to be Sergei Shoigu, the minister of internal affairs will be Rashid Nurgaliev, the minister of education and science will be Andrei Fursenko, the minister of agriculture and fisheries will be Aleksei Gordeev, the minister of justice will be Yuri Chaika, the minister of industry and energy will be Victor Hristenko, the minister of health and social development will be Mikhail Zurabov, the finance minister will be Aleksei Kudrin, the minister of foreign affairs will be Sergei Lavrov. Igor Ivanov has been named as the secretary of the Defense Council of the Russian Federation. The relevant decrees were signed on Tuesday by the president of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin. The number of ministries has been reduced from 30 to 17.