[3] The cabinet of Fradkov was the first government in the history of Russia that voluntarily resigned in accordance with part 1 of Article 117 of the constitution.

On 15 April 1997, a presidential decree by Boris Yeltsin appointed Fradkov Minister of Foreign Economic Relations and Trade, a post which he kept for nearly a year.

He was made director of the Federal Tax Police by Vladimir Putin in 2001, having previously been Deputy Secretary of the Security Council.

Some commentators, such as the Carnegie Moscow Center's Lilia Shevtsova, have speculated that his "outsider" status might have been an important factor in his nomination, saying that Putin selected him as someone who was "not a representative of any of the warring clans" in the Kremlin.

Kommersant, which broke the story, speculated that Fradkov might be replaced by Sergei Naryshkin and/or Russian intelligence services reorganized.

[22] All key decisions were made by the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation, said Alexei Makarkin, deputy general director of the Center for Political Technologies.

Head of the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev became the first deputy chairman in charge of the implementation of the so-called National Priority Projects, and the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation Sergei Ivanov became the deputy chairman in charge of defense and the military-industrial complex.

[24] On 12 September 2007, at a meeting with the President of the Russian Federation, Fradkov was asked to resign the government, motivating it as follows: Understanding the ongoing political processes today, I would like you to have complete freedom in choosing decisions, including personnel.

And, I think that it would be right, on my part, to come up with the initiative to vacate the post of Prime Minister so that you have no restrictions in decision-making and arranging, here, the power configuration in connection with the upcoming political events.

[26] At the same time, the President offered Fradkov to act as chairman of the government until the State Duma approved the candidacy of a new prime minister.