Russia's finance minister announced he would step down next year if President Dmitry Medvedev becomes prime minister following Vladimir Putin's expected return to the presidency.
Prime Minister Putin said yesterday he would reclaim the presidency in an election next March that could open the way for him to rule until 2024.
But in comments likely to worry foreign investors who have praised his guardianship of Russia's economy, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin made clear he was unhappy with Mr Putin's decision to ask Mr Medvedev to be prime minister after the election.
"I do not see myself in a new government," Mr Kudrin, 50, said in comments released in Washington, where he was meeting global policymakers.
"The point is not that nobody has offered me the job; I think that the disagreements I have (with Medvedev) will not allow me to join this government."
Mr Kudrin, who has hinted he would like to be prime minister, has won the respect of investors by saving windfall oil revenues for a rainy-day fund which helped Russia through the 2008 global economic crisis.
Mr Putin's decision to return to the post he held from 2000 to 2008 is also likely to cause some nervousness in the West, where he is considered less liberal than Mr Medvedev and more outspoken in his criticism of Western policies.
Washington said it expected to keep making progress in the "reset" towards better relations with Moscow, whoever was the next Russian president.
Mr Putin and Mr Medvedev have ruled in a power 'tandem' since Mr Putin was forced by the constitution to yield the presidency in 2008 after serving a maximum two consecutive terms.
Mr Putin accepted a proposal by Mr Medvedev to return as president at a carefully choreographed congress of Mr Putin's ruling United Russia party yesterday.
Opinion polls show other potential candidates, such as nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky or Communist Gennady Zyuganov, have much less support and Putin will easily be elected.
The main liberal opposition leaders such as former prime minister Mikhail Kasyanov have only limited appeal nationwide.
The next president will be elected for six years and is allowed up to two consecutive terms.
