Minister

From July 1990 to July 1991 he was the First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Russia and Minister of Agriculture and Food in the Ivan Silayev's First Cabinet.^[4] In April 1991 he signed an agreement with Nessim Gaon's Noga SA on the supply of food in exchange for oil.^[5] Litigation under this agreement had not been resolved to 2008.^[6][7] In July 1991 Kulik's rank in the Ivan Silayev's Second Cabinet was lowered to "ordinary" deputy premier, retaining the position of the Minister of Agriculture.^[8] In late 1991 Kulik was a member of Silayev-led Committee for Operative Management of National Economy, which acted as a provisional government of crumbling USSR.

Member of parliament

In 1993 Gennady Kulik was elected member of the 1st State Duma. He joined the faction of the Agrarian Party of Russia.^[2] On 21 September 1998, he was appointed Deputy Prime Minister in the Yevgeny Primakov's Cabinet, supervising the agro-industrial complex.^[9]

In 1999 he was elected to the 3rd State Duma in the Kalmykia constituency. Kulik was a member of Fatherland – All Russia faction up to 2003 and deputy chairman of the Committee on Budget and Taxes. In 2002–07 — Chairman of the Committee on Agrarian Issues. Kulik resigned as a member of parliament on 11 February 2020.^[10] His seat passed to Alexey Gordeyev.^[11]

Gennady Kulik had been accused of lobbying the interests of tobacco companies.^[12] In 2002 he supported the requests of the tobacco industry to allow the sale of unsold cigarettes produced before 2001 law "On the restriction of tobacco smoking", which made warning message on the packs mandatory.^[13] In 2006 Kulik, together with MPs Ivan Savvidis and Airat Khairullin, initiated the consideration of draft "Technical regulations for tobacco products", allowing to use chemical additives banned in other countries, and making graphic warning messages unnecessary.^[14]