It said Ivanov, 63, who is also a former defence ministery, would now serve as a special representative for conservation, environmental and transportation issues.
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Mr Putin on Friday appointed Ivanov a special envoy for transportation and environment, a stunning downgrade for the man considered one of the most influential people in Russian Federation.
The president has appointed Anton Vaino new presidential chief of staff. Vaino previously held the post of deputy chief of staff.
Putin said on Ivanov himself asked to leave the position of head of the Kremlin administration, however, reports also suggested that he was sacked from his position.
Ivanov served as Russia’s defense minister between March 2001 and February 2007.
It was once thought that Mr Ivanov might become president of Russian Federation after Mr Putin’s second term, as a third term for Mr Putin would have been unconstitutional.
In contrast to the cashiered officials, who are over 60 years old, many of their replacements are younger bureaucrats in their 30s and 40s who clawed their way up during Putin’s presidency.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has removed the head of his administration in a surprise move, the Kremlin’s press service announced Friday.
This change would make Ivanov the only chief of staff Putin has appointed since he was first elected president 16 years ago, to move on to a less high-profile job.
In the past year, Russian Railways chief Vladimir Yakunin, anti-narcotics tsar Viktor Ivanov and security service chief Yevgeny Murov have all lost their jobs.
Mr Ivanov is believed to be one of a small clique, including Mr Putin, Nikolai Patrushev, the secretary of the security council, and Alexander Bortnikov, the director of the FSB, the modern-day successor to the KGB, who made the decision to annex Crimea in 2014.
At the same time, Putin has recently appeared to move to shore up his control over Russia’s security apparatus ahead of parliamentary elections this autumn, creating a new National Guard with increased powers and appointing his former chief bodyguard to oversee it.
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He said Putin was sure to remember the times when the Soviet Union was ruled by increasingly feeble Leonid Brezhnev and his asthenic Politburo associates in their 70s and 80s. “They are always there for him”.
