Sergei Ivanov, the former Russian defense minister and longtime aide to 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 give any cause of death. Exile news outlet Meduza reported that Ivanov was rumored to be suffering from a serious, long-term illness. Putin expressed his “deepest 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 when both worked in the Leningrad Directorate of the KGB. While Putin moved into local politics in the 1990s, joining the Saint Petersburg mayor’s office, Ivanov remained in the intelligence services, becoming a senior official in the Foreign Intelligence Service.The pair were reunited in the late 1990s when Putin rose through the federal government. Putin named Ivanov his deputy in the FSB security service in 1998, and after becoming Prime Minister in 1999, appointed him Secretary of the Security Council of Russia.
Defense Minister and possible successor
Ivanov served as defense minister from 2001 to 2007 and oversaw the second war in Chechnya, which crushed the region’s separatist bid.When Putin decided to step down due to term limits and move to the seat of Prime Minister in 2008, Ivanov was widely seen as his most likely successor.However, Putin chose another longtime ally, Dmitry Medvedev, to serve as his placeholder until he regained the presidency in 2012. Some observers argued that Putin abandoned Ivanov’s candidacy because he saw him as overly ambitious and feared he might try to retain the presidency.Ivanov remained at Putin’s side as Deputy Prime Minister from 2007 to 2011, and then served as Kremlin Chief of Staff from 2011 to 2016, a powerful role overseeing the presidential administration.In 2016, Ivanov was named Presidential Envoy for Environmental Protection, Ecology and Transport, a job that had no political significance and was widely seen as an honorary retirement. Putin fired him from that post in February, less than a week after he turned 73, three years beyond the standard mandatory retirement age for civil servants.Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that 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 actions in Ukraine.Despite no longer serving as the President’s Special Representative, he retained his position as one of the 13 permanent members of Russia’s Security Council. He also served as honorary president of the VTB United League basketball organization.Ivanov held the rank of retired colonel general.