The ranks around Vladimir Putin continue to thin. As the Reuters news agency reports, another adviser to the Russian President has said goodbye to the Kremlin.
MOSCOW – A little over three months ago, the Russian army began its attack on Ukraine. A lot has changed in Moscow since then: the harsh sanctions imposed by the West are bringing the economy and thus the population to their knees, critical reporting on the “special military operation” in the neighboring country has been completely banned, and a different wind is blowing in the Kremlin. While Vladimir Putin’s power seems unshakable, the circle around the 69-year-old is thinning out more and more.
War in Ukraine: Boris Yeltsin’s son-in-law leaves Vladimir Putin’s circle
Like the news agency Reuters reported that another confidante from the closest circle of the Russian President said goodbye in the person of Valentin Yumashev. Although Yumashev is said to have had no direct influence on Putin’s decisions, the 64-year-old is a political face of “old” Russia. As the son-in-law of longtime President Boris Yeltsin, he was the last member of the family with influence within the Kremlin walls.
Yeltsin, who died in 2007, served as head of the Russian Federation from 1991 to 1999, making him the direct predecessor of Vladimir Putin, who first took office in 1999. During his father-in-law’s tenure, Yumashev acted as a Kremlin adviser and then as chief of staff at the presidential residence. In 1997 he was succeeded in this role by Putin and then switched to the presidential administration.
“It was his initiative,” Lyudmila told Telen Yumashev’s decision when asked Reuters. Telen is the first deputy director of the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Center Foundation, where the former Kremlin adviser also serves as a board member. She also underlined that Yumashev had already given up his role as an adviser in April.
War in Ukraine: High-ranking advisers resign
In addition to Yumashev, two other advisers, Anatoly Chubais and Boris Bondarev, had recently announced their departure from Vladimir Putin’s circle of confidants. Chubais had also served as chief of staff under Yeltsin and resigned his post as the Kremlin’s special envoy at the end of March. Chubais was responsible for economic reform in the post-Soviet era and has repeatedly called for new reforms in the recent past. He is said to have left his home country because of the war in Ukraine.
About a week ago, Bondarev announced his resignation as a consultant to the United Nations after 20 years in the Russian foreign service. “Never in my life have I been so ashamed of my country,” wrote the diplomat in his resignation statement. “This aggressive war launched by Putin against Ukraine, and against the entire West, is not only a crime against the Ukrainian people, but also, perhaps, the most serious crime against the people of Russia.” (to)
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