President Vladimir Putin has removed from office the presidential chief of staff, Sergey Ivanov, the Kremlin press service reports. Ivanov occupied a number of top positions in the government, including the post of defense minister in the early 2000s.
Ivanov has been appointed the president’s ecology and transport special representative. Putin simultaneously appointed a new chief of staff, naming Anton Vaino to the post. Vaino had been Ivanov’s deputy since May 2012, when Ivanov was appointed presidential chief of staff. Putin stated that Ivanov himself had requested a transfer to another role, and had proposed Vaino as a candidate for his position.
“I do remember that we’ve agreed upon your request not to keep you in this post for more than four years,” Putin told Ivanov during a meeting on Friday. “I’m receptive to your wish to transfer to another area of activity,” the president said.
Whilst Russia and China frequently make changes in key government positions this is one change which has been in the works for some time. However in a broader context both of these nations have significantly purged their ranks over a number of years. One can speculate that this has been to remove Western infiltration and that could also apply to Turkey, since the failed coup attempt. There is no doubt Russian intelligence will have been provided to assist in this matter, after all we know that they warned Erdogan of this attempted coup before it happened. Equally perhaps it is no surprise that Russia recently destroyed a key chemical weapons installation in Raqqa, Syria.
I would expect the sharing of intelligence between Russia and Turkey to continue, sometimes with very public consequences. As the multipolar world takes further shape we can also expect to see new alliances being born, which would have previously seemed unfathomable. Western nations will start to publicly turn their backs on US hegemony and rotate towards Russia and China. In that regard do not be surprised to see the UK being one of the flag bearers in that regard,
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