“I am satisfied with the way you have carried out the tasks you have been entrusted with”, Putin said at a meeting with Ivanov, broadcast by Rossiya-24.
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Ivanov thanked the president for his praise and confirmed that he would be stepping aside.
“There has been evidence that Putin has been further concentrating power, with the creation of a presidential guard, and I think this is further evidence of this – removing potential rivals”, Ash said.
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.
Many observers had considered Ivanov a leading candidate to take over from Putin as president when his second term ended in 2008. There has even been speculation among Russian Federation watchers that Igor Sechin, another longtime Putin ally and the CEO of the state-run oil behemoth Rosneft, could be phased out.
Putin recently reshuffled a string of top regional officials in a move experts say is aimed at helping the Kremlin shore up the vote across the country.
When Putin was appointed Federal Security Service (FSB) chief, Ivanov became his deputy, later being appointed a member of Russia’s Security Council.
The Russian state news outlet Tass described Johnson, whose appointment provoked raised eyebrows in some capitals, as a “charismatic” man, with a “reputation for wit, capable of destroying his opponent with a single word”.
The meeting was the first between the two leaders in nine months. The move is the most high-profile of a string of personnel changes inside the Russian elite in recent months. As lower gas prices weaken the Russian economy, corruption has been on the rise. Vladimir Putin has fired one of his closest advisers, Serguei Ivanov.
Unsatisfied with the current relations between their states, Russian President Vladimir Putin and British Prime Minister Theresa May have agreed to meet in “the near future”, the Kremlin said yesterday (9 August). Sergei Ivanov was considered as a possible successor to President Putin.
Former KGB officer Mr Ivanov, a former defence minister and deputy prime minister, had been seen as one of Mr Putin’s closest allies.
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Putin named Anton Vaino, 44, to the important post which involves drafting laws for the president to submit to parliament, monitoring their enforcement and conducting analysis of domestic and foreign affairs for the president. Vaino is the grandson of a Soviet-era Communist Party boss of the Baltic republic of Estonia.
