Sergei Ivanov, a former Russian defense minister and longtime ally of President Vladimir Putin who was once seen as a potential successor to the Russian leader, has died at the age of 73.The Kremlin did not provide a cause of death. The exiled news outlet Meduza reported that Ivanov was rumored to be suffering from a severe, long-term illness. Putin expressed his “deep condolences” to Ivanov’s friends and relatives in a brief, one-sentence statement published on the Kremlin’s website.Ivanov and Putin first met in the 1970s while both were serving in the Leningrad directorate of the KGB. While Putin transitioned into local politics by joining the St Petersburg mayor’s office in the 1990s, Ivanov remained in the intelligence services, rising to become a senior officer in the Foreign Intelligence Service.The pair reunited in the late 1990s as Putin rose through the federal government. Putin named Ivanov his deputy at the FSB security service in 1998 and subsequently appointed him secretary of Russia’s Security Council after becoming prime minister in 1999.
Defense minister and potential successor
Ivanov went on to serve as defense minister from 2001 to 2007, overseeing the second war in Chechnya that crushed the region’s separatist bid.When Putin decided to step down due to term limits and shift into the prime minister’s seat in 2008, Ivanov was widely viewed as his most likely successor.However, Putin picked another longtime associate, Dmitry Medvedev, to serve as his placeholder until reclaiming the presidency in 2012. Some observers argued that Putin ditched Ivanov’s candidacy because he saw him as overly ambitious and feared he could try to hold onto the presidential seat.Ivanov remained at Putin’s side as deputy prime minister from 2007 to 2011, and then served as the Kremlin chief of staff from 2011 to 2016, a powerful role overseeing the presidential administration.In 2016, Ivanov was named a presidential envoy for environmental protection, ecology and transportation, a job that carried no political weight and was widely seen as an honorary retirement. Putin dismissed him from that post in February, less than a week after he turned 73, which is three years past the standard mandatory retirement age for civil servants.Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Ivanov had personally asked the president to relieve him of his duties.Along with other Russian top officials, Ivanov was targeted by US and EU sanctions in response to Moscow’s military action in Ukraine.He retained his position as one of 13 permanent members of Russia’s Security Council despite no longer serving as a special representative to the president. He also served as honorary president of the VTB United League basketball organization.Ivanov held the rank of retired colonel general.
