MOSCOW: A Russian deputy economy minister was sacked on Wednesday after criticising "stupid" government economic policies in an online post that went viral.
Sergei Belyakov, a deputy economy minister since 2012, apologised in the note for the government's decision to use money from pension funds to plug holes in the budget.
"I am sorry in front of everyone for the stupid things we do and for not being true to our word," read the apology posted on the minister's Facebook page.
He said that he was "ashamed" of a "harmful" decision extending a temporary measure introduced last year that diverts money from private pension funds.
The move has been broadly criticised as a means of plugging budget holes at the expense of future retirees.
The post which Belyakov said was his personal opinion cost him his job by the end of the workday.
"State employees are forbidden from allowing themselves public statements and evaluations if it is not part of their job," said a statement posted on the government website announcing Belyakov's dismissal.
Russian media earlier quoted Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev's spokeswoman, Natalia Timakova, as telling Belyakov that he should resign if he found his work so shameful.
Medvedev is known for his lack of tolerance for criticism. In 2011 he publicly berated and fired Russia's respected finance minister Alexei Kudrin, known as a fiscal hawk, after he voiced disagreement with the government's spending policies.
Belyakov's Facebook post also suggested divisions within the government over how to react to a contracting economy made worse by Western sanctions over Ukraine, and adherence to President Vladimir Putin's economic promises.
Putin last year denied that the pension money was being confiscated from private funds and promised its return once the funds are vetted by the Central Bank.
But Finance Minister Anton Siluanov later said the money was used up for crisis measures and for developing the Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed earlier this year.
Russia has attempted to reform its cumbersome Soviet-era pension system for years, eventually adopting a system under which employers pay a levy that is split between the state pension fund and private funds picked by employees or their representatives.
The government indicated this week however that the system is not working, with Labour Minister Maxim Topilin saying Monday that the private funds are ineffective and likely to misuse people's money.
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