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. While Putin’s first chief of staff, Alexander Voloshin, was in the position when Putin’s predecessor Boris Yeltsin resigned in 1999, Putin went on to appoint Dmitry Medvedev as chief of administration and he went on to become president himself and is now prime minister.
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Putin gave a brief explanation for his decision to in a statement released by the Kremlin from a televized meeting between Putin, Ivanov and Vayno.
Ivanov has been appointed special representative of the president on environmental activity, environment and transport.
Before it’s here, it’s on the Bloomberg Terminal.
Among the most recent appointments made by the 63-year-old Putin are former members of his security detail.
Many observers had considered Ivanov a leading candidate to take over from Putin as president when his second term ended in 2008.
In the previous year, several key allies and longtime associates of Putin have been dismissed or transferred to sinecures similar to Ivanov’s.
Timothy Ash, a strategist at Nomura bank, suggested Putin could have removed Ivanov because Putin was anxious about his popularity ahead of the elections.
Ivanov was also taken off the Security Council, Russia’s top security body. Ivanov had led the presidential administration since December 2011. “They are always there for him”.
Ivanov’s replacement, Vaino, previously served as head of protocol in Putin’s administration before becoming Ivanov’s deputy in 2012.
In the past year, Putin has dismissed several longtime allies, including Vladimir Yakunin, 68, who was head of Russian Railways JSC for a decade, and Vladimir Dmitriev, 62, who oversaw the indebted state development lender Vnesheconombank.
“Putin is czar so he needs a team of younger people that are 100 percent his, that haven’t had any authority in their lives other than him”, Igor Bunin, director of the Moscow-based Center for Political Technologies, said by phone.
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.
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Respected business daily Vedomosti on Friday described Vayno in an article on its website “as Putin’s own person”, who is not affiliated with any Kremlin group.
